Home Health & Hospice Week
Medicare Funds Projects That Use Home Care Strengths
Educating patients, implementing telehealth figure in Innovation awards. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' new Health Care Innovation awards may point the way to new opportunities for home care providers. Many of the 26 awards CMS has announced so far focus on keeping patients out of the hospital and furnishing care in the home and community through education and telehealth. For example: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of Boston is receiving an award to improve care and reduce hospital readmissions for beneficiaries discharged with conditions such as congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarctions, and pneumonia. The initiative will use "care transition specialists" who help with medical care post-discharge. The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is receiving an award to improve care for about 300 patients on peritoneal dialysis. The project will have health care workers provide clinical support and health monitoring via the web to home dialysis patients. Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville is receiving an award for a program designed to reduce inpatient re-hospitalization by 17 percent by using coordinated discharge planning and care transitions to post-acute care. Other projects across the nation target diabetes, asthma, and other conditions in the community. CMS will announce the next batch of awardees in early June. See the full project profiles at http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/Innovation-Awards/Project-Profiles.html.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Pay For Performance:
Medicare Chugs Closer To Home Health P4P System
Will you have to pay for your patients' high rehospitalization rates? The pay for performance [...] - Reimbursement:
Start Working On Your HH Compare Measures To Prep For P4P
Tip: Put some resources into quality improvement. The timeline for a home health pay for [...] - Fraud & Abuse:
2 Home Care-Related Defendants Plead Guilty After Record-Breaking Fraud Bust
Industry must combat fraud rep. The feds just charged 107 individuals nationwide with Medicare fraud [...] - Finance:
Home Care Companies' Earnings Suffer In Latest Quarter
Reimbursement cuts, face-to-face write-offs mar chains' profits. The Medicare reimbursement climate is getting rougher, and [...] - Industry Note:
Medicare Funds Projects That Use Home Care Strengths
Educating patients, implementing telehealth figure in Innovation awards. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' [...] - Industry Note:
Deadline For Comments On 1-Year ICD-10 Delay Is Nearly Here
Providers that have an opinion -- either positive or negative -- on the proposed new ICD-10 compliance [...] - Industry Note:
Get To Know This New Code
When a patient passes away, you have another code to put on your claim. CMS [...] - Industry Note:
Home Care Earns Top Profits, Newspaper Highlights
The home care industry is having to fight another charge threatening its reputation. Once again, [...] - Industry Note:
Therapy Edits Focus On High Utilization
If you furnish Part B outpatient therapy to patients in the home, you should pay [...] - Industry Note:
MAC Calls Providers On The Carpet For 5010
Think that your HHH Medicare Ad-ministrative Contractor hasn't noticed that you aren't submitting claims in [...] - Industry Note:
CMS Issues New Billing Instruction For Hospices
Starting Oct. 1, hospices need to note a billing wrinkle in the new 5010 format. [...] - Industry Note:
Good News In Observation & Assessment Clarification
Wondering exactly what's required to justify billing observation and assessment code G0163? Well, direct physician [...] - Industry Note:
NC Agency Owner Faces Fraud Charges
A North Carolina home health agency owner has pled guilty to Medicaid fraud. Prose-cutors charged [...] - Reader Question:
Don't Let Ignorance Cost You Therapy Cap Dollars
Use HIQA to find out where your non-homebound patients stand on their caps. Question: Where [...]
