Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Proposed mandate creates more problems than it resolves, commenters say.Providers are skeptical that the 2013 home health prospective payment system proposed rule outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will ease the burdens of the face-to-face physician encounter requirement in the foreseeable future.CMS proposes two tweaks to F2F requirements in the 2013 proposed rule. One is to clarify regulatory language so that the home health agency, not just the F2F physician, can title the F2F documentation."Accepting F2F documentation that is complete with the exception of the physician titling the document is practical and saves the physician and agency time and associated administrative costs," praises Trinity Home Health Services in Livonia, Mich., in its comments on the rule.The other is "to allow an NPP in an acute or post-acute facility to perform the face-to-face encounter in collaboration with or under the supervision of the physician who has privileges and [...]