Now you’re not the only one required to have a written agreement when you enter into a relationship with a nursing home. In the June 27 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a rule requiring "that long-term care (LTC) facilities (that is, SNFs and NFs) that choose to arrange for the provision of hospice care through an agreement with one or more Medicare-certified hospice providers will have in place a written agreement with the hospice that specifies the roles and responsibilities of each entity."
Be prepared: "Facilities could begin re-view of their written agreements with hospices to ensure that they comply with the new requirements or have questions regarding the written agreements," expects the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.
One change: When CMS first proposed the requirement, "a few commenters stated that hospice providers should be notified of any transfer of a resident receiving hospice services, regardless of whether it was related to the terminal illness or not," the agency says in the notice. "We agree with the commenters and have revised the regulation … to remove the phrase ‘that is not related to the terminal condition’ in order to clarify that the LTC facility immediately notifies the hospice regarding a need to transfer the resident from the facility for any condition."
The rule is online at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-06-27/pdf/2013-15313.pdf