Tag: Medicare

Guest Post: Utilization of Post-Acute Services by ALF Residents

The following is a guest blog post on the utilization of post-acute services by residents of an assisted living facility written by Elizabeth Hogue, Esq. The author plans future articles on this subject so be sure to check back for updates!

As the number of years in which they have been in business increases, ALF’s are more eager to help their residents to “age in place.”  ALF’s often view availability of services from post-acute providers; including Medicare home care, private duty home care, hospice, and home medical equipment (HME); as essential to allow them to achieve this goal.  While ALF’s want to encourage utilization of these types of services by residents, ALF’s cannot lose sight of the fact that the healthcare industry is highly regulated.  With ever-increasing emphasis on fraud and abuse compliance, ALF’s and post-acute providers cannot afford to violate the law.

How can ALF’s encourage the use of services available from post-acute providers by residents?  What are the potential legal pitfalls that ALF’s and post-acute providers must avoid?  The most effective way to maximize utilization of these services may be to take a multi-pronged approach that includes:

1. Assignment of liaisons/coordinators from post-acute providers to ALF’s

Use of coordinators/liaisons at ALF’s raises issues related to violation of the federal anti-kickback statute.  This statute generally prohibits providers from either offering to give or actually giving anything to referral sources in order to induce referrals.  Consequently, liaisons and coordinators must be scrupulous about avoiding the provision of free services to ALF’s and/or their residents.  Possible violations include “staffing” an office with an RN who responds to requests from residents in their apartments or has “office hours” to address health conditions of residents.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Utilization of Post-Acute Services by ALF Residents”

New OASIS Guidance from CMS

CMS has just released the latest guidance for OASIS, October 2012 Quarterly Q&As.  This quarterly update contains 11 new Q&As including the latest CMS OASIS-C guidance with a special item about selecting fall risk assessment tools based on standardization, validation and multi-factor requirements.Other highlighted items:

  • situations where the physician-ordered ROC date is outside the assessment time frame
  • selecting a response for patient confusion when confusion level varies
  • how/when bipolar disease and other psychiatric diagnoses might impact the depression process measure.

ODF-Medical Review of Therapy Claims

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a Special Open Door Forum on the Manual Medical Review of Therapy Claims on October 22, 2012 from 2:00pm-3:30 pm.

The review of therapy claims applies to all Part B outpatient therapy settings and providers including home health agencies that bill Part-B outpatient (TOB 34X). The purpose of this Special Open Door Forum (ODF) is to provide an opportunity for providers to ask questions about the mandated manual medical review of therapy services from October 1-December 31, 2012 that was enacted by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

During this Special Open Door Forum, CMS will discuss therapy documentation requirements and answer any questions providers may have. Participants may submit questions prior to the Special ODF.

To participate in the call, dial: 1-866-501-5502; Conference ID: 44803009.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

NHIC’s Review of Home Health Claims with 5-7 Visits

The NHIC, Corp. Medical Review Department has recently completed a review of home health claims with five-seven visits billed. Of the 80 claims review, 28 were paid as billed. The remaining 52 claims had some denials resulting in a claim denial rate of 65%. The total charges reviewed included $72,694.98 of which $32,749.95 was denied. This resulted in a charge error rate of 45%.

The majority of the claims were denied because the skilled nursing services were not supported as being medically necessary in the medical records. Read more in the educational article Review of Home Health Claims with 5-7 Visits

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Home Health and Hospice ODF

This month’s CMS Home Health, Hospice & DME Open Door Forum  is scheduled for Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

To participate by phone:   Dial: 1-800-837-1935 & Reference Conference ID: 76245818.

The agenda includes:

1. Open Enrollment Announcement

2. Home Health & Hospice Quality Update

3. Home Health Care CAHPS Update

4. OASIS Training Update; OASIS-C Online Training: Integumentary Status Domain Pressure Ulcers

Open Q&A

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

HCA Starts Congressional Letter on Home Care Moratorium

Thanks to the advocacy efforts of the Home Care Alliance and the cooperation of legislative home care champions, Congressmen Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) are circulating a letter to be sent to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her agency to utilize the authority given in the Affordable Care Act to establish a temporary and targeted moratorium on new home health providers to control fraud and abuse in troubled areas.

Alliance staff drafted the letter, which is now a bipartisan effort that is seeking support from Congressional representatives from across the country. HCA has sent direct letters to Secretary Sebelius in the past and has supported drives by national associations towards getting a temporary and targeted moratorium established. The fact that the entire industry has been punished for the actions of a few agencies in a few areas of the US has driven the repeated attempts at lobbying HHS. This moratorium action certainly would not halt fraudulent and abusive practices, but it does help to contain the problem, especially in areas that have seen dramatic growth in the number of certified home health agencies.

The Alliance strongly encourages its members and supporters to contact their representative and urge them to sign on. Let your federal representative offices know that they should contact Congressman McGovern’s office to sign on.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Alliance Submits Comments on PPS and Survey Rules

The Alliance today submitted comments to CMS on the proposed changes to the Medicare PPS rates for 2013 and the proposed new alternative sanctions in the survey enforcement process.  Specific issues that the Alliance addressed include the case mix creep adjustment, wage index concerns, proposed changes to the face-to-face and therapy reassessment requirements, and proposed Alternative sanctions—including civil money penalties – for agencies with condition-level deficiencies.  The Alliance’s comments are available on our website here. 

Alliance members are strongly encouraged to submit their own comments on the federal Regulations website.  Enter “CMS-1358-P” in the search box to find the PPS regulation, and follow the instructions to submit your comments.  Comments are due by September 4.

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.

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 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.