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Home Health & Hospice Week

Medical Review:

Fend Off Hospice Scrutiny With Data Details

Published on Fri Feb 24, 2012

Use these 7 tips to keep your rightful hospice reimbursement. Chances are a reviewer's going to be looking over your hospice patients' records soon. Will they pass muster? Even if you're operating by all the rules when furnishing Medicare-covered hospice care, you're still doing to draw attention if you exhibit any of a long list of red flags (see related story, p. 58), points out attorney Robert Markette Jr. with law firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff in Indianapolis. Take these steps suggested by industry experts to survive the scrutiny: 1. Show the patient's decline. If your patient doesn't appear to be getting worse, reviewers are likely to rule her not terminal. "If it's not in the record, then as far as any reviewer is concerned, it didn't happen," reminds attorney Marie Berliner with Joy & Young in Austin, Texas. Hard data is preferable to subjective (and vague) narrative statements [...]
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