Home Health & Hospice Week

• The home health conditions of participation are back on the table once again. The home health COPs were last proposed in March 1997, acknowledged CMS's Pat Sevast at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice's March on Washington meeting in Washington, D.C.

The COPs have been revised again and again since that time and are now on track for fall publication, Sevast told attendees at an April 12 session. However, be aware that changes enacted in the health care reform package could take priority over the COPs finally coming out. "Anything can bump them," she said.