Home Health & Hospice Week

Nevermind Groundhog Day last month - home health agencies just found out they'll be getting at least six more weeks without CoP Interpretive Guidelines.

Background: HHAs have been waiting anxiously for the IGs for the Home Health Conditions of Participation that took effect Jan. 1. With the CoP implementation date pushed back from July 2017 to January 2018, providers were hoping they'd get the IGs used by surveyors well in advance of the start date.

However, agencies have had to muddle through compliance with the new CoPs on their own, without the guidance (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXVII, No. 3). Providers did welcome some clarifications in the draft IGs released last October, particularly one on verbal orders. But for the most part, the draft lacked many specifics agencies were hoping to see (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 39).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn't expect to issue the CoP IGs for another six to eight weeks, CMS's Peggye Wilkerson said March 9 at the ElevatingHOME National Leadership Conference held in Washington, D.C. The news wasn't what providers were hoping to hear. But at least it was "better than hearing 'back to the drawing board,'" ElevatingHOME's Joy Cameron tells Eli.