Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospices now have an updated Medicare Benefit Policy Manual to reference. Most notably, the new manual contains face-to-face encounter requirement details. "A hospice physician or hospice nurse practitioner must have a face-to-face encounter with each hospice patient prior to the beginning of the patient's third benefit period, and prior to each subsequent benefit period," CMS says in the new manual language. "Failure to meet the face-to-face encounter requirements specified in this section results in a failure by the hospice to meet the patient's recertification of terminal illness eligibility requirement. The patient would cease to be eligible for the benefit." The updated manual includes a host of other policy and technical changes made over the years, including clarification of responsibility for ambulance payment. The transmittal containing the manual language is at www.cms.gov/transmittals/downloads/R141BP.pdf. A MLN Matters article about the changes is at www.cms.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM7337.pdf.