Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS backtracks on face-to-face ABNs. The feds have changed their tune on a requirement for the face-to-face encounter rule, and the switch will increase your F2F paperwork. Background: In the 2011 prospective payment system final rule and in subsequent questions and answers, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made clear that home health agencies should not use the home health advance beneficiary notice to make patients liable if a valid physician face-to-face encounter fails to occur, which precludes the agency from billing Medicare for the episode (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 41, p. 322). But now CMS says agencies should use the HHABN to notify patients when home care services will end due to the F2F requirement not being met. However, instead of using Option Box 1, which transfers financial liability to the patient, HHAs should use Option Box 2, which CMS tells agencies to "use when [...]