Home Health & Hospice Week

Appendix B may not be on the CMS SOM website, but it's still in effect. Your next Medicare survey could look very different than your last one -- are you ready? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services put a new home health agency survey protocol in place in May, noted CMS's Pat Sevast at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice's annual meeting in Las Vegas. The protocol is contained in Survey & Certification letter S&C: 11-11- HHA and revised Appendix B of Medicare's State Operations Manual. (Appendix B is "Guidance to Surveyors: Home Health Agencies.") Revised Appendix B is not actually in the SOM on the CMS website yet, Sevast admitted in her standing-room-only Oct. 3 session. But it's still in effect via the Survey & Cert letter, she assured at the meeting that drew about 5,000 attendees. Though the new survey protocol has been in effect for [...]