Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare wants your two cents on lifting regulatory burden related to supervision.

“In response to suggestions we have already received regarding supervision, scope of practice, and licensure requirements,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has already made load-lightening changes including allowing therapist assistants to perform maintenance therapy under the Medicare home health benefit, the agency says in a message to providers.

“We are proud of the work accomplished, and now we need your help in identifying additional Medicare regulations which contain more restrictive supervision requirements than existing state scope of practice laws, or which limit health professionals from practicing at the top of their license,” CMS notes.

You can send your input to PatientsOver Paperwork@cms.hhs.gov with the phrase “Scope of Practice” in the subject line by Jan. 17, CMS instructs.

CMS heralds the therapy assistant change and the Patient-Driven Groupings Model overall as Patients Over Paperwork successes in its latest POP newsletter at www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/Partnerships/PatientsOverPaperwork. PDGM “more accurately pays for home health services and focuses on patient needs by relying heavily on patient characteristics rather than volume of care,” CMS cheers.