Home Health & Hospice Week

At least CMS won't publish your survey indiscretions in your local newspaper. Get ready to face a whole new spectrum of consequences for your survey performance starting next July. In the 2013 home health prospective payment system final rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalizes its proposal to implement alternative sanctions for home health agencies based on their survey results. CMS makes only a few minor changes to the provisions it proposed this summer (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 26). In addition to termination from the Medi-care program, your surveyors soon will be able to impose five new alternative or intermediate sanctions ranging from civil money penalties (CMPs) to directed in-service training (see box, p. 323., for details on each sanction). Medicare also will offer an informal dispute resolution (IDR) process for home care surveys. The CMP, payment suspension, and IDR provisions will take effect in July [...]