Home Health & Hospice Week

What exactly needs to be made up when it comes to training, trade group asks.>

Though the Biden administration has announced the public health emergency’s end date and issued updated fact sheets about when flexibilities will terminate, questions still remain.

Reminder: A White House statement named May 11 as the end date, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued revised “CMS Flexibilities to Fight COVID-19” sheets on Feb. 1 with waiver details (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 5).

For example, for training and assessment of aides, “all postponed onsite assessments must be completed … no later than 60 days after the expiration of the PHE,” the National Association for Home Care & Hospice notes. “Clarification is needed regarding whether all postponed onsite assessments must be completed no later than 60 days after the expiration of the PHE or just the current year’s postponed onsite assessment,” NAHC says in its member newsletter.

Likewise, for aide in-service training, each home health aide is supposed to receive 12 hours of in-service training in a 12-month period. “Clarification is needed regarding whether postponed training must be completed within the first full quarter after the declaration of the PHE concludes or just the current year’s postponed training,” NAHC adds.

New resources: Those with questions can contact CMS via its new 1135 Waiver/Flexibility Request and Inquiry Form at https://cmsqualitysupport.servicenowservices. com/cms_1135, the agency says. Hospital-at-Home waiver information is also posted at https://qualitynet.cms.gov/ acute-hospital-care-at-home.

HHAs should also keep an eye out for future changes to the provider-specific flexibilities. “CMS will be making additional updates,” NAHC notes.