New Home Health Claims Data Requirements

CMS announced plans to require home health agencies to report new claims data. See Transmittal 2680.

For episodes beginning on or after July 1, 2013, HHAs must report where home health services were provided. The following codes are used for this reporting:

Q5001: Hospice or home health care provided in patient’s home/residence

Q5002: Hospice or home health care provided in assisted living facility

Q5009: Hospice or home health care provided in place not otherwise specified (NO)

The location where services were provided must always be reported along with the first billable visit in an HH PPS episode. In addition to reporting a visit line using the G codes as described above, HHAs must report an additional line item with the same revenue code and date of service, reporting one of the three Q codes (Q5001, Q5002, and Q5009), one unit and a nominal covered charge (e.g., a penny). If the location where services were provided changes during the episode, the new location should be reported with an additional line corresponding to the first visit provided in the new location.

Nurse Recognition Program Seeking 2013 Nominations

HHNA is currently accepting nominations to honor and recognize home care and hospice nurses from across the country. Agencies may nominate any registered nurse to represent their state for 2013. Nominations will be reviewed by the Nurse Recognition Program Selection Committee and one nurse will be recognized from each state.

 

To see examples of stories from previous issues of CARING, you can click here. To fill out the online nomination form click here. The deadline for submission has been extended to April 8, 2013.

Take Our 2nd Annual ICD-10 Preparedness Survey

For the second year in a row, Daymarck is conducting a research study on  ICD-10 implementation preparedness. By participating, you’ll be registered in a drawing for a $100 gift card to Shutterfly, in honor of the National Association for Home Care (NAHC) Annual Meeting & Exposition: Making Memories and Magic in Orlando, Florida, October 21-25, 2012. And, more importantly, your feedback will help the industry gain important insights as we transition to ICD-10 in 2014.

We will share this year's survey results on our blog and website. In the meantime, read the findings from last year's survey - and we hope to see you at NAHC National.

NAHC Annual Meeting: Making Memories in Orlando

NAHC's Annual Meeting & Exposition: Making Memories & Magic in Orlando
October 21 - 25, 2012

In the midst of an election year, it is vital that we talk about homecare and the importance it provides to millions of Americans. And what better time to do this than at NAHC's Annual Meeting & Exposition in Orlando, Florida? Both President Obama and former Governor Romney are scheduled to speak and are expected to share their thoughts on the future of homecare. The list of keynote speakers this year includes other influential healthcare leaders like Donna Shalala, Professor of Political Science and President of the University of Miami and Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Senator Susan M. Collins (R-ME).

Daymarck is pleased to be exhibiting again this year at NAHC Annual, sharing our message of how homecare is an important part of the solution to the healthcare crisis. Back in July at NAHC's Financial Executives' Conference, we met with hundreds of financial executives to talk about compliance, coding, and of course, ICD-10. It was exciting to meet with small and large agencies to show them how Daymarck provides peace of mind and cost savings so that they can do what they do best - provide excellent patient care. We look forward to meeting new faces and seeing old friends in October and continuing those conversations.

Please come visit us at booth #316 where we’ll be administering our 2^nd annual ICD-10 preparedness survey and giving out disposable cameras to participants. We’ll also be raffling off a $100 gift card to Shutterfly so that you can share your memories with friends and family.

If you can’t make this year’s convention, you can always attend virtually by keeping up with us here and on Facebook and Twitter. Let's make memories together!

Top 10 Things To Do Now To Prepare for ICD-10

We know with the recent date change there's a lot of confusion about ICD-10 among home health coders and agencies right now. And we are here to help. We recently updated one of our most popular ICD-10 blog posts to help home care agencies develop a plan so that they are full prepared when October 1, 2014 hits. 

Share and let us know what you think.

Here are the Top 10 things that you should be doing right now:

1)   Start talking to all your vendors (point of care, EHR, billing, etc.) to see what they are doing to prepare. They should be able to tell you their clear plan leading up to implementation.

2)   Take a look at any planned provider or system changes and decide if you should do them before, during or after ICD-10 implementation. Ask yourself how this change will be impacted by ICD-10.

3)   Identify your current coding work flow (who is doing how many codes) and what impact ICD-10 will have on it. Then decide what your new workflow process will be.

4)   Decide how you will train your staff on ICD-10. Will it be in-house or external? If you are a Daymarck customer, our training resources will be available to you so you don’t have to worry about this.

5)   Take a hard look at your personnel and determine if they are up to the challenge. This may mean you will need to hire new people or use an outside partner. Make sure your staff is committed to the change and not just doing it to keep their jobs.

6)   To ensure people are committed to the transition, communicate and start conversations about ICD-10 and its benefits and impact with your staff. Communicating with clinicians should be a very strong focus, as many are not up to speed on the necessity and reasoning for the change to ICD-10.

7)   Determine how ICD-10 will impact your budget. Budget constraints can include decreased productivity, training costs, and longer time getting Request for Anticipated Payments (RAPs) out meaning decreased cash flow.  For smaller agencies with limited cash flow, delays in getting RAPs out can be detrimental.

8)   Cultivate the relationship between coders and clinicians as ICD-10 will force them to work more closely together. Good relationship and communication between these two groups will help overcome decreased productivity. While these two groups may have different goals, encourage them to think of the big picture.  

9)   Decide how you will overcome a decrease in productivity. Our recent survey showed the average decrease will last seven months. With decreased productivity and the same staff, you will either get less assessments out per day or force personnel to work longer hours which can lead to burnout. Have a plan to make sure both your staff is taken care of and your assessments are getting done.

10) Take a deep breath. It may seem overwhelming now, but with proper planning and  communication, we’ll get through it together. And when it’s all said and done it will be great for the industry.

Creating our Code of Ethics Policy

We are proud to share our new Code of Ethics and Standards of Ethical Coding with you. The Code was adopted from AHIMA’s Code of Ethics and modified to fit our industry and culture.

It may feel like one more thing to do, but having a code of ethics and standards is important for any business – and vital for one in the healthcare industry. Coding is one of the core health information management functions, and due to the complex regulatory requirements affecting the health information coding process, coding professionals are frequently faced with ethical challenges. 

That’s where our Code of Ethics comes in.

Check out our Standards of Ethical Coding and our Code of Ethics and let us know what you think in the comments section. Leave us a note if you need help working on yours. 

Public Comments Can Make a Difference

On Friday, we submitted our public comment on CMS's Home Health PPS Rate Update for CY 2013. You can too. Formal comments are being accepted until September 4, 2012. 

As we noted in our blog post on August 8, we are concerned about restricting the use of OASIS field M1024 to fractures only. If implemented as written, we believe there is going to be a significant case mix (CM) decrease with unintended consequences for patients.

Our public comment offered the following solution: 

1. Fully implement what “Attachment D” was meant for by collaborating with HHA industry expects and revising and updating Attachment D annually as both coding rules and HHA payment regulations are updated on an annual basis. 
   
2. Do not restrict diagnoses codes limited to M1024 other than what is the intention of Attachment D. If it is the intent of CMS to control CM by limiting diagnosis to this field, a full cost analysis is needed prior to implementation. 
   
3. Mandate that only CM codes are placed in M1024 and not allow EMRs to allow otherwise. Have MACs audit for accuracy. 
4. Acknowledge the use of certified coders in homecare. Give them the ability to correct inaccurate coding by clinicians, with specific documentation on what was corrected and why.

View our comment on the Federal Register's website. Let us know if you plan to submit a comment.