Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospices can get physician buy-in with a few simple strategies. Ready or not, hospices have less than a month to comply with the new hospice narrative requirement -- and physicians aren't likely to make it easy on you. As first proposed in April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have adopted the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's recommendation that physicians include "a brief narrative explanation of the clinical findings that supporta life expectancy of [six] months or less" when they certify (or recertify) hospice patients as being terminally ill. Published in the Aug. 6 Federal Register, the final rule does include a few key changes from the original proposal. New way: Mainly, CMS will accept the narrative either as a typed addendum to the certification form or as information entered onto the form. If the narrative is part of the form, it must come directly above the physician's signature. The addendum [...]