Home Health & Hospice Week
MedPAC Wants Cuts
As expected, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has finalized its recommendations to Congress to cut home health and freeze hospice reimbursement, as well as reduce the hospice aggregate cap. In its Jan. 16 meeting, MedPAC commissioners approved recommendations discussed in its December meeting: cutting home health payment by 7 percent in 2021 (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVIII, No. 44) and freezing hospice rates for the same year (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVIII, No. 45). The influential advisory body to Congress also approved recommendations to cut the hospice cap by 20 percent and adjust it for wage index. MedPAC will include the recommendations in its March annual report to Congress. “These reports hold great sway with Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” say attorneys Kathleen Rubinstein, Kathleen McDermott, Jacob Harper, and Howard Young with law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. “However, neither Congress nor CMS is required to follow the MedPAC recommendations,” the attorneys point out in online analysis.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Review Choice Demonstration:
Overwhelming Majority Of Texas HHAs Are Opting For RCD Pre-Claim Review
More than a third of Texas agencies have entered their RCD choice so far. Pre-Claim [...] - Medical Review:
Know Your Affirmation From Your Approval Rate
Approval rates are tougher. Under the Review Choice Demonstration, choosing the Pre-Claim Review option is [...] - Demonstration Projects:
New Year Has Brought New RCD Developments
Here’s how results calculation works. Some Illinois agencies were placed in the wrong review choice [...] - Reimbursement:
iQIES Problems Persist
Keep a record of your failed OASIS submission attempts, NAHC advises. While it’s still too [...] - OASIS:
Change How You Answer M2420 Effective Immediately
Response 2 now applies only to Medicare home health skilled services. Add another OASIS change [...] - Industry Note:
OIG To Eye IRF Discharges To Home Health
Will examination lead to drop in IRF referrals? Another home health-related topic has landed on [...] - Industry Note:
MedPAC Wants Cuts
As expected, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has finalized its recommendations to Congress to cut [...] - Industry Note:
Beware This Hospice Billing Trap
Do you know how to bill for a day when a patient changes hospice care [...] - Industry Note:
CMS Quality Conference Is Next Month
If you’d like to join in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ quality improvement [...] - Industry Note:
CMS Bungles Some MBIs
Medicare’s conversion to using MBIs rather than HICNs has been pretty smooth, but hasn’t gone [...] - Industry Note:
MAC To Docs: Get Your HH Coding Together
Do you need help getting your referring physicians to provide the documentation necessary for PDGM [...] - Industry Note:
Include IDG Support
Don’t leave out Interdisciplinary Group documentation when you respond to a hospice medical review request. [...] - Industry Note:
Hospice Notifies Families About HIPAA Breach
Instead of electronic files, it’s hard copy paper files that have led Hospice of Anchorage [...] - Industry Note:
Hospice Adds To Name
Another hospice is tweaking its name to indicate its wide array of services. Last fall, [...] - Industry Note:
Hospice Builds Facility
Nonprofit hospice provider Pathways plans to build a 12-patient inpatient hospice facility on its Ft. [...] - Industry Note:
Supervisor Pleads Guilty
A home health supervisor has pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud in the ongoing Moriarty Consultants [...] - Industry Note:
NPR Criticizes Hospice
Mainstream media is taking another swipe at hospice. “Patients Want To Die At Home, But [...]
