Home Health & Hospice Week

Do you know when foot care services are covered under the home health benefit, and when they are not? If you are in doubt, HHH Medi-care Administrative Contractor CGS wants to lend you a helping hand.

"CGS has seen an increase in foot care being provided under the Medicare home health benefit," the MAC says in a message to providers. "To assist home health providers, CGS has developed a new Web page that includes coverage criteria for foot care."

For example: The new site explains that Medicare doesn’t usually cover Treatment of Sub-luxation of Foot or Routine Foot Care under the home health benefit. However, routine procedures related to those services may be covered "only if the patient is under the active care of a doctor of medicine or osteopathy who documents the condition," CGS notes.

See the foot care coverage page at www.cgsmedicare.com/hhh/coverage/hh_coverage_guidelines/footcare.html.