Home Health Billing Alert: CMS Calls For Comments On Home Health Aide Utilization
Home health aide visits have been plummeting in recent years, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a request for information to understand what might be happening. Here is a look at the request and what it could mean for any organization interested in home health billing [1]. How Home Health Aide Use Factors into Home Health Care Billing Home health aide services are part of case-mix adjustment. After a practitioner prescribes home health for a patient, the Home Health Agency Center (HHA) is tasked with assessing the patient condition, along with determining elements like therapy, skilled nursing care, medical social services, and also the need for home health aide services. This happens at the beginning of the 60-day certification period and must be done for every subsequent 60-day certification, something that directly intersects with home health billing guidelines. The case-mix adjustment to the national 30-day payment rate is determine...