Effective January 1, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will replace the No-Pay Request for Anticipated Payment (RAP) with a home health Notice of Admission (NOA). To recap, the No-Pay RAP was implemented in 2021 as part of the home health regulatory… Read More »[UPDATED] From RAP to NOA: How to Prepare for the Switch
Medical Necessity: A Top Reason for Denials During the first quarter of 2021, the top five reasons for denials identified by Medicare Administrative Contractors revolve around inadequate medical necessity documentation. This can also be linked to a related data from Q1 of 2020 identifying 32%… Read More »Medical Necessity Documentation 101
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the 2022 home health final payment rule. The highlight of which is how agencies nationwide will soon be subject to the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model, which is recognized as one of the most… Read More »In Summary: 2022 Home Health Final Rule
QAPI: What is it and why is it important? As the pressure to transition towards value-based care increases, home health agencies must implement an effective Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program to improve patient care and documentation, and maintain compliance with the Conditions of… Read More »How to Build an Effective QAPI Program
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) just released their Q3 OASIS Q&As, providing more insights and guidance on OASIS documentation. The new set of Q&As sheds light on answering OASIS items on confusing and complex scenarios. Questions included were received directly by CMS… Read More »Q3 2021 OASIS Q&As: More OASIS Documentation Guidance
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Targeted Probe & Educate (TPE) program has resumed after being suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Although some medical reviews resumed in August 2020, the TPE program remained on… Read More »TPE Is Back: Here’s What You Need to Know
How Staffing Remains to Be a Challenge Results from a recent online survey on home health staffing that was conducted between July 21 and August 6, 2021 have been released. When the year started, staffing was identified as the top challenge for home health according… Read More »Key Takeaways: Home Health Staffing Survey 2021
The Importance of Documentation Needless to say, clinical documentation is vital for a number of reasons. It is used to communicate a patient’s medical background to staff, provides evidence of positive outcomes, quality care, and improvement, and determines agencies’ reimbursement claims. Documentation also protects both… Read More »Do You Understand the Documentation Needs of Your Clinicians?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the fiscal year (FY) 2022 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code update on June 24, 2021, effective for discharges and encounters or visits on or after October 1, 2021. A total of 165 codes were added, along with other… Read More »Eyes Here: FY 2022 New Coding Guidelines
For a time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) suspended certain surveys and routine inspections, and temporarily froze survey data in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with this pause was the prioritization of infection control and immediate jeopardy situations… Read More »[Part 1] Is Your Agency Survey-Ready? Reviewing Common Deficiencies on the CoPs
