Home Health & Hospice Week

The Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 7 states that "the condition of [homebound] patients should be such that there exists a normal inability to leave home and, consequently, leaving home would require a considerable and taxing effort."

The patient can still be homebound if "absences from the home are infrequent or for periods of relatively short duration, or are attributable to the need to receive health care treatment." Those include attendance at adult day care.

"Occasional absences from the home for nonmedical purposes, e.g., an occasional trip to the barber, a walk around the block or a drive, attendance at a family reunion, funeral, graduation, or other infrequent or unique event would not necessitate a finding that the patient is not homebound if the absences are undertaken on an infrequent basis or are of relatively short duration and do not indicate that the patient has the capacity to obtain the health care provided outside rather than in the home," the Manual continues.

Resource: More details are in the Manual, Chapter 7, p. 21-23, at www.cms.gov/manuals/Downloads/bp102c07.pdf.