Regulations:
CMS Delays Face To Face Enforcement
Published on Mon Jan 03, 2011
11th hour reprieve granted on burdensome new physician encounter requirement. Home health agencies and hospices got a welcome Christmas present from Medicare -- a delay of the enforcement date for the new face to face encounter requirement. For weeks, home care providers and their representatives had been giving the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services the full court press about the burdensome new physician visit requirement. In a Dec. 15 letter to CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, more than 25 senior and longterm care organizations joined the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in calling for a delay to the FFE requirement. NAHC, other trade groups, and providers lobbied their elected representatives in Congress to ask CMS for the delay. And NAHC issued a press release informing beneficiaries and their families about the potential access problems related to the new initiative. Victory: Right before Christmas, CMS sent instructions to its Medicare [...]