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Home Health & Hospice Week

Regulations:

Face-To-Face Encounters Affect Both HHAs And Hospices

Published on Wed Apr 07, 2010

And HHAs may be on the hook retroactively. If you were breathing a sigh of relief that your home health agency wouldn't have to worry about face-to-face encounters after CMS's announcement in the last Open Door Forum that they didn't apply to agencies, suck that breath back in. The health care reform legislation signed into law in March actually requires face-to-face encounters for both HHAs and hospices, as well as durable medical equipment. The law suggests that the encounter must occur in the six months before certification for HHA services, but leaves it up to the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a "reasonable timeframe." What's more, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) makes the requirement retroactive to Jan. 1 for HHAs, says Mary St. Pierre with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "We are writing to CMS about having the date delayed until [...]
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