Home Health & Hospice Week

PHE flexibility fact sheets now incorporate accurate end dates.

The wheels of Medicare regulation usually grind slowly, but in one case they’ve been a little quicker.

Reminder: In a blog post last month, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials noted that a number of COVID-19 public health emergency regulatory flexibilities will end when the PHE does — which seems like it will happen sooner rather than later, signs indicate. In provider-specific fact sheets, CMS indicated that telehealth visits for both home health and hospice face-to-face encounters would be among the flexibilities ending (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXXI, No. 32).

Now, CMS has corrected those fact sheets to note that the F2F flexibilities will actually end a bit later, thanks to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.

The F2F waiver “will expire the first day after the 151st day following the end of the PHE,” the updated home health and hospice fact sheets both now read.

The home health sheet is at www.cms.gov/files/ document/home-health-agencies-cms-flexibilities-fight-covid-19.pdf and the hospice sheet is at www.cms.gov/files/ document/hospice-cms-flexibilities-fight-covid-19.pdf.