Home Health & Hospice Week
CMS Slows Implementation Of Cross-Setting Measures
These IMPACT Act elements shouldn’t impact you in 2018. You’ll have one less thing to worry about this coming year, since Medicare officials have decided to hold off on proceeding with some new IMPACT Act data collecting. Data elements identified for fiscal year 2018 proposed rules — cognitive function and mental status, special services, treatments and interventions, and impairments — “were not finalized,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a Sept. 28 Special Open Door Forum on the IMPACT Act. CMS made the call “to be responsive to stakeholders’ comments that the addition of standardized data elements ‘are too much, too soon,’” CMS said in the forum. The delay should also “enable greater ‘recovery’ for providers between major releases.” The delay will also allow for additional reliability and validity testing, including testing on time points used in data collection. And it will give more time for stakeholders and Technical Expert Panels to build additional consensus on elements, CMS added. See the forum slides at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Post-Acute-Care-Quality-Initiatives/Downloads/Sept-2017-CMS-SODF-IMPACT-Act-92917_v2.pdf.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Prospective Payment System:
Proposed HHGM Changes Stir Up Therapists
CMS expects agencies providing more therapy visits to see bigger pay cuts under pay reform. [...] - Payment:
HHGM Bell Tolls For Therapy-Intensive HHAs
It’s not just your imagination — Medicare is out to cut therapy reimbursement with the [...] - Therapy:
The Gaming Will Go On
Eliminating therapy from case mix won’t fix what ails it, commenters say. The Centers for [...] - Reimbursement:
$1 Billion Payment Cut Will Not Improve Home Health Care
Get your act together on case mix, commenters tell CMS. To eliminate therapy as a [...] - PPS:
Payment Reform Must Be Budget-Neutral
One of the most important tenets of a viable payment reform model is that it [...] - OASIS:
OASIS Edit Will Return — Not Deny — Claims, For Now
Take 3 steps to resolve 37253 problems. The OASIS edit that took effect in April [...] - Industry Note:
CMS Slows Implementation Of Cross-Setting Measures
These IMPACT Act elements shouldn’t impact you in 2018. You’ll have one less thing to [...] - Industry Note:
HHGM Bill Disappoints
A new bill to delay the Home Health Groupings Model may not be all home [...] - Industry Note:
Toe The Sequential Billing Line, MAC Warns
Failing to follow sequential billing rules for hospice is not only cash flow-draining, it’s also [...] - Industry Note:
Mass. Agency Owner Arrested For Fraud
The owner of Worcester, Massachusettsbased Lifestream Healthcare Alliance has been arrested on Medicaid fraud charges [...] - Industry Note:
Don't Include Patient Names On Hospice Adjustment List
If you want to take advantage of easier hospice billing corrections for Routine Home Care [...] - Industry Note:
Hospital Closes Agency
Another hospital-based home health agency has closed. Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise, Oregon, shuttered its [...] - Industry Note:
Hurricane Scams A Threat
Con artists always know to strike when the irons are hot. And in the midst [...]
