Home Health & Hospice Week

Know what you can — and can’t — give physicians for review-proof F2F documentation.

You can’t fill out face-to-face encounter documentation for your patients’ physicians, but you can help them know what to cover. And that could make a big difference with all the Medicare Administrative Contractors vowing to crack down on F2F documentation.

Medicare officials have been very clear in telling home health agencies that they can’t merely give docs a filled-out form to sign. "The face-to-face encounter should be the physician’s assessment of why the person is homebound and requires the skilled services," HHH MAC National Govern-ment Services says in a new article about the F2F requirement. "Some face-to-face encounter forms have a preprinted statement regarding the homebound status which is unacceptable. A preprinted statement that copies part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines does not meet this criterion. The physician’s assessment of the patient’s homebound status is required."

But you can give physicians a blank form that prompts them to record the required information about the F2F encounter (see template below), NGS says.

Note: For more F2F educational materials, see the NGS website at www.ngsmedicare.com — click on "HHH" on the far right, then choose "Tools and Materials" under the "Resources" tab in the top bar. F2F materials are under the "Coverage and Documentation" heading.

Face-To-Face Encounter Form Template

Patient Name _____________________

I certify that this patient is under my care; I have established a plan of care, and it will be reviewed by a physician periodically, and I or an allowed non-physician practitioner working in collaboration with me had a face-to-face encounter with this patient on:

Month ____________ Day _______ Year_________

The encounter with this patient was in whole, or in part, for the following medical condition, which is the primary reason for home health care:

________________________________________________________________________

I certify, that based on my findings, the following services are medically necessary home health services

(Check all that apply):
Nursing
Physical Therapy
Speech Language Pathology

In addition to the above qualifying service, the patient needs (Check all that apply):
Occupational Therapy
Social Work
Home Health Aide

My clinical findings support the need for the above services because:

_______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Further, I certify that my clinical findings support that this patient is homebound (i.e. absences from home require considerable and taxing effort, and for medical reasons or religious services, or infrequently, or of short duration when for other reasons) because:

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Community-based physician assuming responsibility _________________________
Physician Signature __________________________Date _____________________
Physician Printed Name _______________________
Affiliated Facility (if applicable) ___________________________________________

Source:HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor National Government Services