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?
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
A Rising Demand for Medicare Programs By 2030, the entire baby-boom generation will have reached the age of eligibility for Medicare, hence the rapid acceleration in enrollment from 62 million (in 2020) to 78 million. This increased enrollment will also trigger an increase in… Read More »Business Growth Potential in Medicare and Home Health
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) just recently released their Q2 OASIS Q&As providing insights into the latest updates on OASIS documentation. The new set of Q&As provides important guidance specifically on updating the OASIS within (or after) the 5-day Request for… Read More »Q2 OASIS Q&As: New Guidance on GG Items
While there is currently an alarming shortage of nursing professionals in the US, another looming crisis, this time in the pool of direct care workers, stands to hurt the entire healthcare ecosystem, including home health care, if left unchecked. Direct care workers refers to… Read More »Shortage in Direct Care Workers: How Home Health Agencies Can Help
Since the implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) in 2020, there have been new complexities in home health coding that have made it challenging for agencies to optimize reimbursements. Data from 2020 revealed that home health organizations did not meet CMS reimbursement projections… Read More »Best Practices for Coding Under PDGM
Transition to Value-Based Care The healthcare industry, particularly home health, is a landscape that is constantly changing with frequent updates on regulatory requirements and new standards. In an effort to improve payment systems, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently been… Read More »[QRP] Quality Reporting Program: Why You Should Pay More Attention to It
When OASIS submission, coding, and QA review were streamlined, Qavalo’s client agencies saw significant improvements in their OASIS turnaround time and realized better compliance and profitability. With the right outsourcing partner, Qavalo clients have been able to get the support their in-house teams need… Read More »PDGM Challenges: Optimizing Profitability Through Efficient OASIS Turnaround
LUPA and the Pandemic In the first few months of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the frequency of low-utilization payment adjustments (LUPAs) increased for many home health providers to 9.5% according to a home health news source. While this aligns with the projection from the… Read More »Real LUPA Scenarios: Finding What Works
