Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry campaign to delay face-to-face requirement continues. You should have no doubts about where you stand on physician face-to-face encounter requirements for your patients -- even if that may be on quicksand. "Effective April 1, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expects home health agencies and hospices have fully established internal processes to comply with the face-toface encounter requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for purposes of certification of a patient's eligibility for Medicare home health services and of recertification for Medicare hospice services," CMS says on its website. "Throughout the first quarter of 2011, CMS has continued outreach efforts to educate providers, physicians, and other stakeholders affected by these new requirements," CMS continues. "Compliance with these important requirements will ensure that home health agencies and hospices work in collaboration with physicians to promote the best possible care for beneficiaries, while also strengthening the integrity of [...]