Home Health & Hospice Week

Ideally, you shouldn't be seeing any more claims denials when your hospitalized patient's documentation fails to record the hand-off between her hospital physician and community doc. Old way: Originally, "the Medical Review Departments for all contractors [were] told that they can accept the face-to-face being signed by one physician and the plan of care being signed by another physician as long as there is written documentation on the face-to-face documentation that the physician is handing off the care to the other physician," HHH MAC NHIC says in its minutes for its Nov. 8 Home Health Provider Outreach and Education Advisory Group meeting. New way: "NHIC has received instruction from CMS that documentation of the hand off of the patient's care from one physician to the other is no longer needed," the MAC says. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is filing appeals on behalf on members when such [...]