Guest Post: ICD-10 Preparedness – Where Are You in the Process?

Guest Post by: Joan L. Usher, BS, RHIA, COS-C, ACE

Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies need to implement their ICD-10 preparedness plans now.  This is the single largest change the health care system has seen since the inception of Medicare.  Changing to ICD-10 is not a simple coding change: it impacts every department in the organization.  Follow these 5 steps to develop your agency’s ICD-10 preparedness plan.

Organize

Establish a Steering Committee with key players from major departments.  The ease and success of the transition relies heavily on strong leadership support.

Assess

Assess the impact on all departments.  This step is crucial in determining which items need to be completed pre-ICD-10, including testing of claim submissions with ICD-10 codes, redesign of EHR screen, or paper documents to capture documentation needed. Consider vendor and payer readiness.  Determine how to operate dual systems, and for how long.  Assess coder’s knowledge of the current coding model.  Assess whether the coding model will work under the increased specificity of ICD-10. Continue reading “Guest Post: ICD-10 Preparedness – Where Are You in the Process?”

Advocacy Alert: Send a Message to Support Home Health Care in Senate Budget

A new advocacy message has been posted on the Home Care Alliance’s Legislative Action Center webpage and is ready to be sent off to state senators to support home health care in the senate’s FY14 budget.

HCA has three priority amendments in the Senate Budget that would create a home health care “certificate of need” process (amendment #517), establish MassHealth reimbursement for home telehealth services (amendment #718), and improve payment for pediatric home health agencies (amendment #593). The Alliance needs emails to senators to gain support for these important amendments so see the new advocacy message, fill out your contact info, and the message will automatically be sent to the senator representing you! It only takes a minute of your time and every email counts.

The Alliance is also supporting three other amendments. One would create an FMAP Trust Fund (#634) that will set up a special fund for payments from the federal government relative to health care reform, rather than having the money go into the state’s General Fund, which is less transparent. The other two amendments HCA supports would provide a rate add-on for personnel providing homemaker and personal care homemaker services to elderly clients (#544) and an amendment to boost funding for pediatric palliative care by $674,000 (#629).

Help advance home care in the state budget and send a message TODAY!

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

State Senate Releases FY14 Budget Proposal

The Senate Committee on Ways & Means continued the state budget-making process today by releasing their version of the FY14 budget, which will be debated before the full Senate next week.

The $33.92 billion proposal is a $1.4 billion increase over estimated FY13 spending, but $904.3 million less than what the Governor proposed. The Senate Ways & Means version is also $67.5 million less than what the full House of Representatives approved in their budget last month.

Here are some items of note:

  • $4.5 billion for the MassHealth Managed Care line item – $39.5 million over the final House budget.
  • $2.9 billion for the MassHealth Senior Care line item – $42.5 million over the final House budget.
  • $187.2 million to fully fund the elder home care programs, an additional investment of $6.2M over FY 2013, to eliminate the current waitlist of 1,500 seniors. This includes $98.7 million for Home Care Purchased Services.
  • $10.5 million for Grants to Councils on Aging, increasing support to $8 per elder, marking the highest ever level of state support for councils on aging.
  • $2.1 billion for the MassHealth Fee-for-Service line item – $7.2 million LESS than the final House budget.
  • Level-funding the Pediatric Palliative Care Program.

The Home Care Alliance will again be working with Senators to file three budget amendments to create a home health certificate of need program, establish MassHealth reimbursement of home telehealth, and strengthening pediatric home health.

As the Alliance works over the next few days to submit these amendments, association members and advocates should be on the lookout for “advocacy alerts” with message templates that can be sent to Senate offices. Of course, more information on budget development will be released as it becomes available.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Home Care & Telemedicine

NPR’s Talk of the Nation had a lengthy segment on the growing use of telemedicine, especially in home care.  In addition discussing the benefits to patients with limited mobility or access to specific services they need and Medicare’s current refusal to reimburse for remote doctor consultations, the segment included a letter from the Alliance’s own James Fuccione, starting at 19’09”:

[HOST NEAL] CONAN: Here’s an email question that has some aspects of that that I wanted to ask you about, this from James [Fuccione] in Massachusetts: The Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts is advocating for Mass Health, [the] state Medicaid program, reimbursement of telehealth used by home health agencies.

Many agencies part of our association use telehealth already because it improves their quality and efficiency. They use wireless weight scales, blood oximeter, blood pressure cuffs, et cetera, and depending on their condition. So in other words you can collect data over these same circuits.

[DR. KAREN] EDISON: Right.

CONAN: Do you use that as well?

EDISON: Yes, so we do a lot of telehome care and remote monitoring here in Missouri. One of our large home health agencies in the southwest part of the state is probably the leader in that area. One of the challenges, of course, is the inter-operability of the health information systems. So as health information technology matures, and the companies become more inter-operable, they can talk to each other and transmit information easily.

You know, as that gets – as that whole industry matures, this is going to get easier and easier so that instead of the home health agency monitoring those patients, actually the patients – patient-centered health care home or medical home, their actual health providers would be monitoring those patients on a daily basis.

You may download the entire show by clicking here.

CMS Releases Hospice Item Set Draft

CMS recently published a  draft version of the Hospice Item Set (HIS) that hospice agencies will be required to collect for patients admitted on or after July 1, 2014.

The HIS has two versions: Admission and Discharge. The admission version needs to be completed within 30 days of admission and CMS estimates that it will take your hospice 19 minutes to gather and input all the information needed to complete. The discharge version of the HIS must be completed within 30 days of discharge and is estimated to take 10 minutes to complete the shorter discharge set.

Information CMS is proposing to collect includes numerous process measures, such as whether the patient was asked about preferences regarding CPR and other life-sustaining treatment, and whether the patient or caregiver was asked about spiritual or existential concerns.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: CMS, 7500 Security Boulevard, Attn: PRA Reports Clearance Officer, Mail Stop C4-26-05, Baltimore, Maryland 21244-1850.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

US HHS Releases Data on What Hospitals Charge

The federal office of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have released data on what hospitals across the nation charge for the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays.  Hospitals determine what they will charge for items and services provided to patients and these “charges” are the amount the hospital generally bills for an item or service.

The variance in what hospitals charge both regionally and by procedure is apparent and is already the subject of a story in the New York Times.A press release by HHS highlights the fact that, even within the same geographic area, prices can vary dramatically. For example, the average inpatient hospital charges for services that may be provided to treat heart failure range from a low of $21,000 to a high of $46,000 in Denver, Colo., and from a low of $9,000 to a high of $51,000 in Jackson, Miss.

The Home Care Alliance isolated the state-specific data for Massachusetts here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org

HCA Celebrates National Nurses Week

The Home Care Alliance is proud to join associations and medical providers from across the state and country in celebrating National Nurses Week.

Every year on May 6-12, National Nurses Week raises awareness of the value of nursing and the hard work performed everyday by nurses in all health care settings. In particular, the Home Care Alliance thanks the nurses working in home health care – along with the therapists, social workers, aides and other staff that are part of the care team with nurses – to ensure that people can remain at home for as long as possible.

Recently, the Home Care Alliance held the annual Home Care Innovations Showcase and Star Awards where the association recognized Patricia Darling from the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston and Shirley Lucier of VNA Care Network  with HCA’s “Clinician of the Year” awards. Many of the Innovation Awards to home health agencies recognized forward-thinking practices or policies that involved nurses as a vital component.

For those looking to join in recognizing nurses, the American Nurses Association hosts a special National Nurses Week website with resources and reports on the nursing profession and how to celebrate.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Caregiver Videos: Using Home Care As A Supplement to Family Care

In the eighth video in our series for family caregivers, Lynda Giovanello of Walpole Area VNA discusses how home care can be used to supplement — not replace — care from family members.

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.
Continue reading “Caregiver Videos: Using Home Care As A Supplement to Family Care”

CMS ODF- May 8th

The next Home Health, Hospice & DME Open Door Forum is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time (ET).

Agenda:

Opening Remarks- Chair – Randy Throndset, Division Director, Division of Home Health, Hospice and HCPCS (CM)

Moderator – Matthew Brown (OC)

 Announcements & Updates:

  1. Health Insurance Marketplace Update
  2. HHCAHPS
  3. OASIS Modules
  4. Hospice Update
  5. Hospice Cost Report Update/PRA
  6. Claims Processing Update
  7. Re-Issued G-Code Reporting CR
  8.  Open Q&A

Open Door Participation Instructions:

This call will be Conference Call Only.

To participate by phone:

Dial: 1-800-837-1935 & Reference Conference ID: 78867258.

 Encore: 1-855-859-2056; Conference ID: 78867258.

Encore is an audio recording of this call that can be accessed by dialing 1-855-859-2056 and entering the Conference ID beginning 2 hours after the call has ended. The recording expires after 2 business days.

For ODF schedule updates and E-Mailing List registration, visit the ODF website

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Congratulations to the 2013 Star Award Winners

Each year, the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts honors the best and brightest in caregiving and home care management. This video of the 2013 winners played at our award ceremony on May 1, 2013.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.