Home Health & Hospice Week
ELECTROMAGNETIC THERAPY BUNDLED INTO HOME HEALTH PPS
Since you can count it toward M0825, you have to pay for it. Add one more service to the list bundled into the home health prospective payment system: electromagnetic therapy. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed in April that the newly covered wound therapy counts toward the therapy threshold under PPS (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 17). And beginning Oct. 1, HHAs will have to pay for it, CMS reveals in a July 9 transmittal. Starting then, Medicare won't pay therapists separately for G0329 (Electromagnetic tx for ulcers) when a patient is under a home health plan of care. Agencies can count G0329 when calculating therapy visits for OASIS item M0825. CMS updates the list of items and services included in home health consolidated billing every January when the HCPCS codes are updated. But the agency can make other bundling changes on a quarterly basis when necessary, notes the transmittal at www.cms.hhs.gov/manuals/pm_trans/R226CP.pdf.
CMS has posted its revised form, which recently secured Office of Management and Budget approval, at www.cms.hhs.gov/healthplans/appeals. Its use for Medicare Advantage patients is required by Aug. 1, NAHC says. Pennsylvania aims to help 1,500 residents return to the community. The change supports the state's efforts to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, requiring care in the least restrictive setting possible. And the Department of Health and Human Services has approved adding 500 people to a Texas waiver serving developmentally disabled or mentally retarded residents, HHS says in a release. The waiver currently serves about 8,000 people. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are back in court asking for a federal judge to help enforce the settlement, the Advocate says. Tampa, FL-based based NuMed's reorganization plan was approved in August 2001, but its emergence from bankruptcy is held up by a lawsuit that is part of the plan, the paper says. The company is suing Jugal K. Taneja to recover $1 million. The U.S. Trustee's Office in Tampa sought to convert NuMed to Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April, but the company won the right to continue in Chapter 11 after it paid its Trustee's fees, says the Deal.
State Medicaid officials say a number of problems have contributed to the program's delay, including higher-than-anticipated interest (14,000 inquiries versus 2,300 expected) and staffing inefficiencies at the contractor that assesses candidates for the program.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Referrals:
HOSPITAL REFERRALS TO HOME CARE STILL A SECRET
Long delay to hospital referral reg gets even longer. Don't expect to see your local [...] - Regulations:
COPS RESCHEDULED - AGAIN
The hospital referral regulation wasn't the only home health entry in the Centers forMedicare & [...] - Regulations:
EXPECT WHEELCHAIR DOWNCODES AFTER SCOOTER REG FINALIZED
Change in prescribing requirements slated for September. A rule making it easier to order scooters [...] - Eligibility:
UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU - FOR HOMEBOUND DEMONSTRATION
Demo results could change the homebound definition forever. More details about the upcoming homebound demonstration [...] - Demonstration:
WILL HOMEBOUND DEMO MAKE YOUR LIFE HARDER?
Industry voices laundry list of concerns about the new project. The upcoming homebound demonstration project [...] - False Claims:
WHISTLEBLOWERS PROVE SUREST PATH TO FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Every dollar spent on prosecution puts $13 back in federal treasury, new report says. With [...] - Labor Law:
IF YOU WITHHOLD PAYCHECKS, YOU'RE RISKING THOUSANDS
Follow these experts' tips for a better way to deal with late paperwork. You could [...] - Industry Notes:
ELECTROMAGNETIC THERAPY BUNDLED INTO HOME HEALTH PPS
Since you can count it toward M0825, you have to pay for it. Add one [...]
