Home Health & Hospice Week

F2F mandate reduces access to home care, drives up rehospitalizations, commenters say.CMS is getting an earful about the burdens of the face-to-face physician encounter requirement in comments on the 2013 proposed rule for the home health prospective payment system, but most pro-viders aren't holding out hope for big changes any time soon.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser-vices proposes two tweaks to F2F requirements in the 2013 proposed rule. One is to clarify regulatory language so that the home health agency, not just the F2F physician, can title the F2F documentation. "Accepting F2F documentation that is complete with the exception of the physician titling the document is practical and saves the physician and agency time and associated administrative costs," praises Trinity Home Health Services in Livonia, Mich., in its comments on the rule.The other is "to allow an NPP in an acute or post-acute facility to perform the face-to-face encounter [...]