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Home Health & Hospice Week

Legislation:

Face-To-Face Requirement Applies To Hospices Only,CMS Clarifies

Published on Tue Mar 23, 2010

Hospices are in for more medical review under health care reform package. The new health care reform package is throwing a lot of new requirements at home care providers, and the result can sometimes be confusion. For example: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be issuing in the upcoming home health agency prospective payment system proposed rule a new requirement that a physician see a patient face to face before certifying her. However, even though it's in the HHA rule, the requirement will apply to hospice patients only, CMS clarified in the April 14 Open Door Forum for home care providers. That is a big relief for HHAs that thought the face-to-face requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would apply to them (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 15, p. 115). But it still places a heavy regulatory burden on hospices. Under PPACA, for [...]
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