Home Health & Hospice Week

Don't let this critical piece of hospice documentation get lost in the shuffle. The feds might not have the authority to require a stand-alone certification of terminal illness for your hospice patients, but it's probably a good idea for your bottom line anyway. Hospices have been confused about whether to include the physician's CTI in their plan of treatment, plan of care, or as a separate stand-alone document. Some hospices "currently combine the CTI with their hospice's [POT] that contains the patient's subjective and objective medical findings, medications, and physician treatment orders," the National Association for Home Care & Hospice notes. In other words, on "the old 485." NAHC asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about the dilemma and got a response that encourages the stand-alone CTI, the trade group reports. Regulations at 42 CFR Section 418.22 do not refer to the CTI as being part of any other [...]