Home Health & Hospice Week

A big chunk of your Medicare hospice payments could be at stake. If you wait for medical reviewers to ferret out your problems with the new physician hospice narrative requirement, you could be in a world of hurt payment-wise. Hospices actually seem to be doing OK with the narrative portion of the new requirement that went into effect Oct. 1, indicates regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA. "Many hospices are complying with the use of the physician narrative requirement," the intermediary reports in an email message to providers. Background: Under the new requirement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires the certifying physician to include a brief narrative explanation of the clinical findings that supports a life expectancy of six months or less. The narrative can be part of, or an addendum to, the cert/recert form. "The narrative must reflect the patient's individual clinical circumstances and cannot contain check boxes [...]