Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospices with inpatient facilities had better make sure their fire safety measures are up to snuff or face deficiencies starting in September. On Sept. 11, state surveyors will begin assessing facilities including hospices and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) for compliance with the 2000 edition of the Life Safety Code of the National Fire Protection Association, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a May 8 letter to survey agencies (S&C-03-21). CMS published the new fire safety requirements in the Jan. 10 Federal Register (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 2, p. 16). However, providers will get some extra time to comply with two of the toughest new provisions - replacing existing roller latches with positive latching devices and making sure emergency lighting provides illumination for at least 90 minutes. Hospices and others will have until March 13, 2006 to meet those requirements, the letter says. Pricing corrections for some of the new thoracic-lumbar-sacral-othoses codes (L0450 through L0490) will be put off because CMS found errors in the revised prices, CMS says in the durable medical equipment fee schedule quarterly update for July. DME regional carriers will use local gap-filled fee schedule amounts for claims with those codes after June 1, and national and regional amounts after the July update is in place, CMS says in May 9 program memorandum AB-03-071. The update will also move E1161 (manual adult size wheelchair with tilts in space) and E1231 through E1238 (pediatric wheelchairs) from the capped rental to inexpensive or routinely purchased category (see story, in article 2). Intermediaries have 30 days to either accept or reject a provider's cost report as incomplete, including when a provider's cost report diskette is "bad or damaged," CMS says in a recently posted transmittal. The intermediary will quickly test the diskette and, if necessary, send the provider a letter requesting a new diskette within 15 days from receipt of the letter, says Transmittal No. 22. The new diskette must come within the original 30-day period or the intermediary will reject the whole cost report as incomplete, CMS says. CMS is gearing up to implement the much dreaded - and oft delayed - therapy cap. Medicare claims processors should begin applying the cap starting July 1, CMS declares in May 2 program memorandum AB-03-057. The cap applies to outpatient occupational therapy and physical therapy (including speech-language pathology), but not therapy furnished under a home health plan of care. Advocates for the disabled and labor groups are urging New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey (D) to push legislation that would have the state take over New Jersey's home care industry, reports The Star-Ledger. Home health agencies underpay their workers while executives get rich, [...]