Home Health & Hospice Week

Don't shirk this vital responsibility. For home health agencies that have let cost reports slide to the bottom of their priority lists, now's the time to get a handle on the problem. Consultant Tom Boyd with Rohnert Park, Calif.-based Boyd & Nicholas offers these tips for cost report success: 1. Understand accrual accounting. Using Medicare's required accounting method isn't optional. Providers using cash-based accounting need to learn how to do it correctly. 2. Don't retro-fit your data. HHAs should keep a good chart of accounts as they go along. "A good chart of accounts allows the expenses to be recorded in a natural manner and [is] designed to flow into the cost report," Boyd explains. For example, providers should keep six separate salary accounts rather than one (see related story, p. 210), record medical supplies into nonroutine and routine categories, and record aide salaries for Medicare versus non-Medicare duties separately, [...]