The new year is well underway, and we are inspired by the progress made this past year and the opportunities ahead. As the leading technology solution in the home healthcare industry, growth that supports the industry is our core focus. We continue to enhance our team of industry experts, in... Keep Reading
The 2017 Final Rule makes significant changes to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HHQRP), including changes to both publicly reported quality indicator items and items included in the monitoring of agency quality outcomes scores. As part of the Triple Aim of healthcare for Medicare beneficiaries, quality monitoring continues to... Keep Reading
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that the Pre-Claim Review demonstration will expand to Florida on April 1, 2017.
Florida is the second state required to participate in the Pre-Claim Review demonstration, which officially began in August in Illinois.... Keep Reading
Misusing social media is the ninth of the 10 risks to home health agencies, highlighted by the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice and Liles Parker PLLC.
Social media is an accessible medium that provides organizations opportunities to directly market and connect with specific audiences. According to Merrily Orsini, owner... Keep Reading
The eighth of the 10 risks facing home health agencies today, highlighted by the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice and Liles Parker PLLC, is HIPAA Privacy Breach Liability.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was passed by Congress in 1996 and, among other things requires the protection... Keep Reading
Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) began this year in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. As selected HHVBP states, all Medicare-certified home health agencies in these states are required to participate in the model, which studies the effects of incentives to improve quality and delivery... Keep Reading
One of the biggest changes in CMS’ Home Health 2017 Final Rule involves the outlier payment methodology, and these changes will certainly impact many agencies.
Current Methodology
Outlier payments are made for episodes whose estimated costs exceed a threshold amount for each Home Health Resource Group (HHRG). Currently, the episode’s estimated cost... Keep Reading
One of the top ten risks highlighted by the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice and Liles Parker PLLC is fraud in government-funded healthcare programs that lead to criminal liability.
The Office of Investigations conducts criminal, civil and administrative investigations of fraud and misconduct related to U.S. Department of Health... Keep Reading
As in prior years, the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HHPPS) had several revisions in this year’s Final Rule update. These changes will likely impact your agency’s bottom line, so you will want to familiarize yourself with them so you know what to expect in 2017.
This is the last year... Keep Reading
The recently published 2017 Home Health Final Rule outlines changes to the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HHPPS), Home Health Value Based Purchasing Model (HHVBP), and Home Health Quality Reporting Requirements. This blog gives a basic overview of the changes, while subsequent blogs will detail these changes further per topic.
The... Keep Reading
One of the top ten risks highlighted by the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice and Liles Parker PLLC is fraud in government-funded healthcare programs, an issue addressed by the False Claims Act (FCA).
With recent escalation of fraud resurfacing, the FCA acts as the government’s primary enforcement for attacking... Keep Reading
Top Ten Risks Agencies Face Today, Part 5: Addressing Backlogs in the Administrative Appeals Process
The Medicare appeals process is experiencing a sustained increase in the number of appeals, as highlighted earlier this year by the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice and Liles Parker PLLC. This increase, coupled with only modest increases in funding, has created a significant backlog of appeals at the... Keep Reading
