Home Health & Hospice Week

HHAs continue to struggle with meeting face-toface obligations. Add the cost of denied claims to the crushing expense list for face-to-face compliance. Home health agencies are starting to see claims denials roll in for face-to-face non-compliance, report industry representatives. The "broadbased" denials seem to focus on the signatures for the plan of care and F2F documentation not matching, says Vicki Purgavie with the Home Care & Hospice Alliance of Maine. Agencies have seen "a slew of denials by NHIC, citing code # 55HTB, with the notation 'Need Face to Face Encounter Certification Signed by the Same Physician who is Certifying the Plan of Care,'" explains Susan Young with the Home Care Association of New Hampshire. "Needless to say, this is a problem when a hospitalist signed the F2F attestation." The denials aren't quite nationwide yet, says William Dombi, vice president for law with the National Association for Home Care & [...]