Home Health & Hospice Week

When reviewing the referring physician’s face-to-face encounter documentation, it would be wise to keep one HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor’s clarification in mind.

In newly posted questions and answers from the Home Health and Hospice Coalition meeting on June 6, an agency says “we have been seeing variations in what is and what is not allowed for face-to-face documentation in Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) Pre-Claim Review (PCR). Does Palmetto GBA expect the home health primary diagnosis to be the primary focus of the qualifying face-to-face encounter? Or do they just expect the home health primary diagnosis to be addressed in the encounter but not necessarily require it to be the focus?”

Palmetto responds, “The clinical encounter note must be related to the primary reason for home health. It doesn’t have to be the main focus, but it does need to be addressed (more than just being on a list of diagnoses).”

More coalition Q&As are at www.palmettogba.com/ palmetto/jmhhh.nsf/DID/CBDAO0QH8O#ls.