Home Health & Hospice Week

Flesh out therapy documentation to fight denials and downcodes.You'd better dot your i's and cross your t's when it comes to furnishing therapy services in home health, or you could be handing money back to Medicare that should be yours.Therapy-related problems with home health claims topped the list in the latest Comprehensive Error Rate Testing results, notes HHH Medicare Ad-ministrative Contractor CGS in its June newsletter for providers. Many of the denials were technical -- the claims lacked a plan of care signed by the physician or the visits weren't documented in the record.Bottom line: "The plan of care must be signed and dated by a physician ... before the claim for each episode for services is submitted for the final percentage payment," the Centers for Medi-care & Medicaid Services says in its Medicare Benefit Policy Manual. "Any changes in the plan of care must be signed and dated by [...]