Home Health & Hospice Week

Check the HIT covered drug list.

The new Home Infusion Therapy benefit launched Jan. 1, and many questions about how it affects home health agency services remain. But the feds have shed light on one confusing quirk.

Under the HIT benefit, HHAs that want to furnish and bill infusion therapy services must enroll as qualified HIT suppliers with the Part B Medicare Administrative Contractor in their state. But the HIT benefit only covers certain drugs and biologicals for infusion — and the list doesn’t currently include antibiotics. So said a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official in the agency’s Jan. 26 Home Health Open Door Forum.

In other words: HHAs can furnish and bill for services necessary for administration of antibiotics in the home under the usual home health payment system, the CMS staffer explained.

See the list of home infusion drugs that are covered under the HIT benefit in MLN Matters article MM 11880 at www.cms.gov/files/document/mm11880.pdf.