Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS is offering you a helping hand to get docs on board with face-to-face encounter documentation requirements. The agency has issued a new MLN Matters article on the topic aimed at physicians.

"The Affordable Care Act mandates that prior to certifying a beneficiary’s eligibility for the HH benefit, the certifying physician must document that he or she or an allowed non-physician practitioner (NPP) had a face-to-face encounter with the beneficiary," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services stresses in the article. Further, "the homebound status of the patient and his/her need for skilled services must be written in a brief narrative, signed by the physician, titled ‘Home Health Face to Face Encounter’, and dated," CMS continues in the article.

A list of diagnoses or procedures won’t cut it when it comes to documenting skilled need, CMS warns. And jotting down brief phrases like "gait abnormality" or "taxing effort" won’t prove homebound status either, the agency maintains.

"The face-to-face encounter documentation must explain why the findings from the encounter support the medical necessity of the services ordered and the beneficiary’s homebound status," CMS insists.

The article, which includes examples of correct and incorrect F2F documentation as attachments, is at www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/SE1405.pdf.