Home Health & Hospice Week

Don't think visit ranges will minimize your ABN burden. Are your home health advance beneficiary notice practices in compliance with federal regulations? If not, you're probably not alone. In paperwork supporting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' proposed minor changes to the HHABN this fall, CMS says it expects home health agencies to be issuing two ABNs per episode, on average, due to care changes that occur resulting from doctors' orders. "The 200 percent estimated use of Option Box 3 [on the HHABN] during annual 60-day episodes of care reflects the high number of care changes that occur due to doctor/provider orders," CMS says in its supporting statement (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 20, p. 158). Combined with ABNs from Option Boxes 1 and 2, HHAs should be issuing more than 12 million notices a year, CMS says. The two ABNs per episode for Option Box 3 sounds [...]