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Hospice:

Use This New Guidance To Report Hospice Social Worker Calls

Published on Fri Feb 26, 2010

Site of service codes, ambulance charges also addressed in forum. Don't expect any hard and fast rules about which social worker calls you are supposed to report on hospice claims, but the feds are offering a little more guidance. Question:Anewly updated Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services question and answer asks "In CR6440 CMS wrote that: 'Report only social worker phone calls related to providing and or  coordinating care to the patient and family, and documented as such in the clinical records.' Does this sentence mean that only calls to the patient and family are to be considered for reporting?" Answer: Reporting isn't strictly limited to patient and family calls, CMS admits in Q&A 9970. But because the calls must be "necessary for the palliation and management of the terminal illness and related conditions as described in the patient's plan of care," most calls will probably be to the patient [...]
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