Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare Healthcare providers who need to test patients for Coronavirus using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2019 Novel Coronavirus Real Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Test Panel may bill for that test using the newly created HCPCS code (U0001). The Medicare claims processing system will be…… Continue reading Public Health News Alert: CMS Develops New Code for Coronavirus Lab Test

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare As of January 2020, CMS will no longer publicly report two claims-based measures:  Emergency Department Use without Hospital Readmission during the First 30 Days of HH (NQF #2505) and Rehospitalization during the First 30 Days of Home Health (NQF #2380). Click on the link to view…… Continue reading Home Health Compare quarterly update is available now.

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare Found in the January 2020 OASIS Q&A’s is question #9 asking about M2420. The writer asks about how to meet compliance with the new quality measure, Transfer of Health Information to Provider, when there is no response to identify a patient who was discharged to another…… Continue reading Did you know there is new OASIS guidance for item M2420, Discharge Disposition, effective immediately?

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare CMS released the OASIS Q&As for January 2020 The OASIS Q&A’s are available in the OASIS Quarterly Q&As section of the CMS QTSO webpage, https://qtso.cms.gov/providers/home-health-agency-hha-providers/reference-manuals

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare On January 7, 2020; the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) reported they have been hearing from their members regarding issues with OASIS assessment rejections and validation report errors. CMS has been in communication with NAHC about this situation. The information below is an…… Continue reading Home health agencies need to be aware of issues with OASIS assessment rejections and validation report .

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare If your HHA is in a state participating in the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) and your agency selected the Pre-claim Review (PCR) option you will need to be aware of CMS’s update to the RCD Operational Guide, dated December 5, 2019. See excerpt below then follow…… Continue reading Update to Review Choice Demonstration from CMS

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare In fact, PDGM will require the physician to do more work and to responds more quickly and more often to agencies’ requests. Physicians will need to be educated about the new system. NAHC has created a Physician Toolkit to help agencies educate physicians about the new…… Continue reading PDGM will change the relationship your agency has with physicians.

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare Your agency can’t afford to miss this information! CMS just released a document that provides PDGM transition guidance including OASIS time point, data set version and M0090 Date Assessment Completed considerations for patients where resulting assessments must provide the Health Insurance Prospective Payment System (HIPPS) code…… Continue reading AVAILABLE NOW – OASIS Considerations for Medicare PDGM Patient-Transition

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare CMS posted the home health final rule. To read the rule, CLICK HERE.