Home Health & Hospice Week

DMERCs receive worst grade in satisfaction survery.

If your regional home health intermediary is Palmetto GBA, you are among the group of home health agencies most satisfied with its Medicare contractor.

HHAs gave all four RHHIs an average ranking of 4.77 on a 1-6 scale, or 75 percent, according a new report detailing the findings of the latest Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Palmetto ranked highest with a 4.88 satisfaction score, according to the survey that saw a 65 percent response rate. The lowest score was 4.65 for Associated Hospital Service.

"The RHHIs tend to score high and all have scores above the national average of 4.56," notes the report prepared by Rockville, MD-based Westat.

Durable medical equipment suppliers, however, were less happy with the services they receive from DME contractors. "DME Contractors tend to have low scores and all four have scores below the national average," the report points out. The average DME contractor score was 4.34.

The highest-scoring was Jurisdiction B, served by National Government Services, at 4.50 or 75 percent. The lowest-scoring DME contractor was Jurisdic-tion A with 4.20 (64 percent), followed closely by Jur-isdiction D with 4.21. Those areas were served by multiple contractors during those periods, the report notes.

Hospices were the most satisfied with their FI and RHHI contractors, giving them an average 4.81 (76 percent) rating. The report is online at www.cms.hhs.gov/MCPSS/downloads/MCPSS_Report.pdf. • Be prepared for civil monetary penalties if you are a DME supplier who offers free oximetry testing for patients with congestive heart failure.

The HHS Office of Inspector General says no to two oxygen suppliers who proposed providing patients diagnosed with CHF with an in-home CHF assessment with oximetry testing, free of charge, according to a July 23 advisory opinion (No. 07-08).

The OIG cites kickback concerns as the reason for not approving the suppliers' plan. "Arrangements whereby a prospective provider or supplier of federally payable items and services offers beneficiaries a non-covered item or service free of charge implicate the fraud and abuse laws and must be closely scrutinized," the OIG says in its opinion.

To see the opinion, go online to http://oig.hhs.gov/w-new.html. • You'd better make sure you're keeping up with the pack on three Home Health Compare measures that showed improvement in the latest quarter. If you don't,  you could be sorry once pay for performance hits.

Patients who get better at bathing improved from 63 to 64 percent. This outcome measure stood at 57 percent when Home Health Compare debuted in November 2003.

Patients who get better at taking oral medications rose from 41 to 42 percent over the three-month period, after starting at 35 percent in 2003.

And patients who are short of breath less [...]