Home Health & Hospice Week

It's no April Fool's Day joke -- the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a laundry list of newly "clarified" requirements for home health therapy that will take effect April 1.

The new requirements include:

• therapy goals with objective measurements;
• a functional assessment by the physical therapist and visits on the 13th and 19th visits and every 30 days. In cases where the patient is in a rural area or there are undefined "extenuating circumstances outside the control of the therapist," the assessment may take place in the 11-13 and 17-19 visit ranges, but the extenuating circumstances must be documented;
• assessment of progress toward the goal using the objective measurements;
• items required in assistant notes, including that they not make clinical judgments about progress;
• items required in therapist notes, including justification of why the patient will improve if they haven't yet at reassessment; and
• delineation of a therapy maintenance program and its requirements. These elements will join the claims reporting of new G codes for assistants which began Jan. 1.