Plus: CMS withdraws erroneous hospice certification guidance. A burdensome new requirement announced last month seems to have gone as quickly as it arrived. Then: On May 14, HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA issued a “Home Health Review Choice Demonstration [...]
How far have you gotten in checking your physicians? Hospices have little time left to bulletproof their claims against the new edit requiring that certifying physicians be enrolled in or validly opted out of Medicare. Follow this expert advice to [...]
CAHPS revisions, NOE/election statement clarifications addressed — but not the Special Focus Program. While payment and HOPE tool provisions in the hospice proposed rule for 2025 may be getting the lion’s share of attention, other sections are also important for [...]
Do you fall in the majority when it comes to deficiencies? How well you’ve handled duties under 11 Conditions of Participation will play a big part in whether you land on the Special Focus Program list when it comes out [...]
Regulatory provision could add to your burden. A regulatory proposal that looked like it might increase hospices’ flexibility instead seems destined to add to their headaches. So indicated multiple callers in the Aug. 30 Medicare Open Door Forum for home [...]
Deficiencies under these 11 CoPs can trigger SFP selection. Check out the information that Medicare will use to single out hospices for stepped-up survey enforcement when the Special Focus Program takes effect. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposes [...]
End of COVID PHE heightens hospices’ risk under new framework. Hospices have a lot to grapple with in the massive revamp of Medicare survey protocols. Wise agencies will increase their chances of securing successful survey results by heeding the following [...]
Surveyors will single out live discharges, CHC, GIP, and bereavement for sampling. The time has come for many of the hospice survey changes enacted in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to take effect — but not the ones most [...]
Your survey history will be much more important going forward. Watch out: Hospices that don’t prepare for new hospice survey procedures proposed for implementation might find themselves fined out of existence, among other dire consequences. Many of the survey changes [...]
It’s time to put your money where your surveys are. New hospice survey procedures ranging from civil money penalties to surveys every six months for poor performers to public reporting of survey outcomes are poised for implementation. Hospices that aren’t [...]
