Home Health & Hospice Week

Home health agencies served by Palmetto GBA were first out of the chute for a new licensure and accreditation check, but Cahaba GBA agencies aren't far behind.

Cahaba sent letters to HHAs on April 20 requiring them to submit licensure information (if their state has licensure) and either a copy of their current state survey results or their current approved accreditation, Cahaba notes on its Web site.

Palmetto sent out similar letters April 12 and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed in the April 14 Open Door Forum for home care providers that all HHAs will get the requests (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 122).

If HHAs fail to respond to the requests by the deadline, their Medicare billing privileges will be revoked, the intermediaries say. Cahaba's deadline is May 21 while Palmetto's is April 30.

Watch out: Submitting just part of the documentation won't be good enough, Cahaba warns."If you have submitted only one of the requested information, you will need to submit the missing information," the intermediary says on its Web site.

You may want to send your documentation by certified mail, because Cahaba won't call to confirm receipt of it. That's due to "the large amount of requests," the intermediary notes.

However, "we will not revoke providers' billing privileges without requesting any missing information," Cahaba assures agencies.