Category: Regulation

Be Prepared: Audit Activity on the Increase

Locally, regionally and across the nation, home care agencies are reporting increased federal scrutiny.  Every agency should be especially attentive to regulatory compliance.

The Boston Office of the HHS Inspector General is visiting many agencies across New England to conduct an audit of OASIS processes, with a focus on proper and timely submission of the OASIS to the state. They are looking closely at evidence of the OASIS transmission to the State before the submission of the claim, as well as at each agency’s process to review “fatal errors” and validation reports. We believe as many as 70 agencies may ultimately be asked for records.  We have not heard of any results or payment penalties as yet as a result of these audits.

Agencies also report that as a result of the submission of their Medicare Provider Enrollment Application (CMS 855a), federal inspectors are visiting on site to verify – often with camera’s – that the physical address reported on the form is operational.

Finally, it appears the ZPIC – Zone Program Integrity Contractors – are moving into home health. Unlike RACs which just look at  overpayment issues, the ZPICs are tasked with assisting HHS in discovering fraudulent practices.  A fairly detailed legal explanation of the roles of these federal contractors can be found here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Last Chance to Apply for CMS Community-Based Care Transitions Program

The final deadline for applications for the Community Based Care Transitions Program, administered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), is quickly approaching.

Any interested applicants must have their proposals in by September 3rd to make the final panel review on September 20th. Any interested home health agencies can contact James Fuccione at the Home Care Alliance for assistance. Additionally, CMMI has made a slide deck available with everything health care providers and community-based organizations need to know for the application process.

Recently, there were 17 proposals that were accepted in the third round of site selections and, again, a Massachusetts project was among them. Here is the “site summary:”

Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, a Massachusetts-designated Aging Services Access Point (ASAP) and an Area Agency on Aging (AAA), is partnering with Mystic Valley Elder Services,  two large integrated hospital networks (Cambridge Health Alliance and Hallmark Health System) and dozens of community-based health and social service providers to provide care transitions services to high-risk Medicare beneficiaries throughout Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

For more on HCA’s work on care transitions issues, see these blog posts.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Healthcare Bill Summary

The MA legislature shifted into overdrive during the last few days of the 2011/2012 legislative session, which ended on July 31. Healthcare cost containment was among the major pieces of legislation that were approved during the last days of the session, and several provisions of the bill have significant impacts on home care providers.

Section 142 of the bill will significantly ease the burden of the Fair Share Contribution (FSC) requirement that employers offer health insurance to their workers. Under this section, any employees that have health insurance through a spouse’s coverage, military, disability, or Medicare will not be included in the calculation of an employer’s compliance with the FSC mandate. This change should be a relief to many home care agencies. Section 51 of the bill establishes appeal processes for employers faced with a FSC audit.

The bill also includes a number of provisions related to home health’s role within Accountable Care Organizations and names the Alliance to a couple of new advisory panels.

The Alliance has prepared a more detailed summary of the bill’s provisions: http://www.thinkhomecare.org/associations/1892/files/HealthcareCostContainmentSummary.pdf.

Request for Responses for Consumer Consultants

MassHealth released an RFR to recruit “consumer consultants” that will assist with the review of applications from potential Integrated Care Organizations managing care for dual eligible individuals.

The demonstration project to better integrate and coordinate care for dual eligibles is still set to begin in January 2013 and the state remains on an aggressive pace to get the initiative underway. The RFR for Integrated Care Organizations (ICO’s) is due at the end of the month, and this separate RFR for “consumer consultants” is due July 20th.

These “consumers” must receive medical services, behavioral health services and/or long term services and supports (LTSS) from the state and will form a paid advisory subcommittee that shares its experiences and expertise with MassHealth and the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

The RFR is available on the state procurement website Comm-PASS as Document Number 13CBEHSCONSUMERCONSULTANTRFR and at this site on the Integrating Medicare and Medicaid for Dual Eligibles website under Related Information.

For those home care agencies that have patients with positive experiences of the care and services that have been delivered to them and that may be interested, please encourage them to apply.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

CMS Home Health/Hospice Open Door Forum Tomorrow

The next CMS Home Health, Hospice, & DME Open Door Forum is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 10, 2012 at 2:00pm ET.

To participate in this conference call, please dial (800) 837-1935 and use the conference ID 52259092. Participants are not required to RSVP and are asked to dial in at least 15 minutes prior to the call start time.

Two New ACOS Approved in Massachusetts

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today the approval of 89 new Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The  89 new ACOs have entered into agreements effective July 1 with CMS, taking responsibility for the quality of care they provide to people with Medicare in return for the opportunity to share in savings realized through high-quality, well-coordinated care. Among the 89, there are two in Massachusetts:

  • Circle Health Alliance, LLC, located in Lowell, Massachusetts, is comprised of partnerships between hospitals and ACO professionals, with 353 physicians. It will serve Medicare beneficiaries in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
  • Harbor Medical Associates, PC, located in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, is comprised of ACO group practices, with 116 physicians. It will serve Medicare beneficiaries in Massachusetts.

The 89 ACOs announced today bring the total number of organizations participating in Medicare shared savings initiatives to 154.  Of these, there are already five entities in Greater Boston designated as Pioneer ACOs  by CMS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) announced last December.  There are an additional two physician  practice demonstrations, one south of Boston, the other on Cape Cod.

For 2012,  CMS has established for all ACOs 33 quality measures relating to care coordination and patient safety, appropriate use of preventive health services, improved care for at-risk populations, and patient and caregiver experience of care.

CMS Releases Proposed PPS rates for 2013

CMS on Friday released an advance copy of the proposed regulation for changes to the home health PPS rates for calendar year 2013.

Brief highlights:

• The proposal increases the national base episodic rate by 0.16%, from $2,138.52 to $2,141.95.  (calculated using a 2.5 percent inflation update, a 1 point reduction mandated by the health care reform law, and a 1.32 percent case mix creep adjustment.)

• The portion of the rate adjusted by the wage index is increased from .77082 to .78535

• The county wage index is available here (click on the “download” at the bottom of the page).:

Here are changes for MA counties:

Current                2013

Barnstable                        1.2838                   1.2872
Boston                              1.2283                   1.2394
Middlesex                         1.1210                   1.1285
Essex                               1.0698                   1.0575
erkshire                            1.0616                   1.0745
Bristol                               1.0639                   1.0718
Springfield                        1.0247                   1.0390
Worcester                         1.1076                   1.1230
Dukes/Nantucket              1.3962                   1.3570

The proposed rule also:

  • allows certain non-physician practitioners in inpatient settings to conduct the required Face-to-face encounter;
  • increases flexibility in complying with the therapy reassessment requirements;
  • establishes hospice quality reporting requirements to begin in 2014, including various proposed measures to report;
  • creates an Informal Dispute Resolution process that agencies can use to dispute survey deficiencies;
  • establishes a range of “Intermediate Sanctions” for non-compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation, including civil money penalties, suspension of payment for new admissions, and temporary management.

The Alliance will conduct a thorough analysis of the proposed rule and prepare comments.  Watch for additional details in the next few weeks.

Comments are due by Sept. 4.

Medicare Home Health Proposed Rule Issued: Clarifications and Improvements on Therapy Assessment Rules

The  Medicare Home Health Proposed Rule was release last week. Among proposed payment changes, Face to Face clarifications, and new sanctions for non-compliance with federal requirements, the Therapy Assessment Rule is also slated for changes and improvements. But are all of these proposed changes really improvements to this Therapy Rule?

Clearly an improvement to the rule—CMS proposes to revise the regulations to state that if a qualified therapist missed a reassessment visit, therapy coverage would resume with the visit during which the qualified therapist completed the late reassessment, not the visit after the therapist completed late reassessment.— Currently, when a qualified therapist misses one of the required reassessment visits, once the therapist has completed the required reassessment, coverage resumes after this reassessment visit.

In addition, CMS proposes to revise the regulations to state that” in cases where multiple therapy disciplines are involved, if the required reassessment visit was missed for any one of the therapy disciplines for which therapy services were being provided, therapy coverage would cease only for that particular therapy discipline”. Therefore, as long as the required therapy reassessments were completed timely for the remaining therapy disciplines, therapy services would continue to be covered for those therapy disciplines. Again this change appears to work in favor of the provider. — Currently the regulation states,  even if qualified therapists from the other therapy disciplines have completed all their required reassessment visits, therapy visits for these disciplines would not be covered until the qualified therapist who missed the reassessment visit has completed the previously missed reassessment visit.

This last change has potential to cause headaches for scheduling the multi-therapy visits. —CMS is proposing a change to allow “flexibility” and guidance to the provider.  This change would be applicable in cases where beneficiaries are receiving more than one type of therapy; the qualified therapists could complete their reassessment visits during the 11th, 12th, or 13th visit for the required 13th visit reassessment and the 17th, 18th, or 19th visit for the required 19th visit reassessment. — Currently the regulation states that therapist’s visit need only be “close to” the 13th and 19th visits. This proposed revision does not appear flexible but rather has great potential for scheduling patients’ visits for three disciplines to be extremely inflexible. Hopefully stakeholders will comment on this proposed change.

www.thinkhomecare.org.

Skilled Teaching for Dementia Patients

NHIC, Corp. has just released a medical policy article that addresses a specific category of skilled nursing care currently available to Medicare home health beneficiaries who have dementia with behavioral disturbances; A51856 Home Health Skilled Nursing Care: Teaching and Training for Dementia Patients with Behavioral Disturbances.  The category of skilled nursing is called “teaching and training activities”, defined in the CMS Manual System. The Medicare beneficiaries with dementia and behavioral disturbances could receive a patient-centered care plan directed at teaching the family or caregiver how to manage the behavioral disturbances.

Refer to Article A51856 for sample case scenarios and details on documentation, coding guidelines, and potential interventions

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

CMS’ Hospice Quality Reporting Data Training Webinars Available

Video files and Q&A from the CMS Hospice Quality Reporting Data Collection Training webinars conducted in April are now available. There are two zip files located under Related Links on the Hospice Quality Reporting Spotlight Section webpage. One zip file contains four versions of the structural measure training videos and the other zip file contains four versions of the NQF #0209 measure training videos. There are four versions of each section of the training so hospices may choose to view either captioned or uncaptioned versions using either MP4 or Windows Media Video. The Q&A are located in the Downloads section on the same page.