Month: February 2013

NAHC Holding Virtual Lobby Day on Feb 6

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is holding a virtual lobby day for its members on Wednesday, February 6 to continue the mission to keep issues important to home health on the minds of elected leaders. Virtual lobby days are essentially using phone calls and emails to advocate for important issues without traveling to the nation’s capital.

The virtual lobby day is centered around potential co-pays to Medicare home health services, which remain on the table as deficit talks continue. There have been a range of proposals since recent federal budget deficit talks began. They include a uniform 20 percent copay for all Medicare services, which NAHC estimates would amount to as much as $600 to access a Medicare episode of home health services. Other proposals include one by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) of $150 per Medicare episode and another from President Obama in a past year’s budget blueprint that was $100 per episode, but not preceded by a hospital or nursing home stay and beginning in 2017 for newly eligible Medicare beneficiaries.

NAHC members can help fight these proposals by sending a message using the NAHC Legislative Action Network (LAN). Click here for a sample message opposing home health copays and payment cuts. The message will be more impactful if you personalize it with your background and experience and describe the harm that copays and payment cuts will cause patients and providers in your state and district. For hospice messages, click here and here.

You may also deliver the message by phone. You may obtain contact information here: Contact Your Elected Officials. When calling, ask the receptionist to connect you with the staffer who handles health care issues. For talking points on home health copays, go here; for payment cuts, go here. For hospice, go here and here.

For those who are not members of NAHC, you can still contact your US Senators and Representatives through their respective websites. If you need assistance finding who represents you, go to www.wheredoivotema.com.

NAHC also hosts a facebook page called “No Sick Tax” that is meant to bring advocates and home care agencies together around the issue of fighting copays.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

New Edits on Hospice Claims

Recently, CMS released Change Request (CR) 8142 – Hospice Monthly Billing Requirement, effective date of change- July 1, 2013. The CR instructs Medicare contractors to implement a system edit to return hospice claims to the provider when there is more than one hospice claim per month per beneficiary. The only exception to this requirement is in the case of the beneficiary being discharged or revoking the benefit and then later re-electing the benefit during the same month.

Medicare contractors will also implement a system edit when the provider submits claims that span more than one calendar month.  Any hospice claim spanning multiple months will be returned to the provider for correction.

This is not new policy but is a new enforcement.  After July 1, 2013 claims not in compliance with the monthly billing requirement will be returned to providers.  A corresponding MedLearn Matters article is expected to be posted in the near future.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org

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Caregiver Videos: How to Set Up A Home For A Dementia Patient

Last month, we introduced the Care Giver Video Resource Center, our YouTube series for family care providers about home care and home care agencies.

In the fourth and fifth videos in the series, Joan Wright, CMC, CPD of NVNA & Hospice demonstrates some simple changes anyone can make to improve the quality of life for a person with dementia living at home.

To view the full series, visit our YouTube channel.  To access library of hundreds of care giver resources on a variety of subjects, visit www.eldercareskills.org, who produced the videos with us.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.