Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed significant changes to the Home Health Prospective Payment System (Home Health PPS) that keep the unique needs of patients first, with proposals to implement a new home infusion benefit for beneficiaries, increasing home-based care. This proposed…… Continue reading “Trump Administration Announces Steps to Strengthen Medicare with New Home Infusion Therapy Benefit and New Regulations that Put Patients Over Paperwork” What might this mean for home health agencies in the future?

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare This article, published below by CMS refers to home dialysis six times and payment adjustments aim at transforming kidney care so that patients with chronic kidney disease have access to high quality, coordinated care. This is an initiative worth watching. Today, delivering on President Trump’s Advancing…… Continue reading “HHS To Transform Care Delivery for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease” What might this mean for home care in the future?

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare We all know how difficult it can be to communicate with physicians for numerous reasons. Under PDGM effective communication will be more important than ever. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is partnering with John Hopkins University conducting a survey addressing Agencies’ Communications with…… Continue reading Be proactive, don’t let your agency miss the chance to participate in the survey!

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare In March 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began delivering a series of enhancements to the Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES). The upgraded system, called the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES), is an Internet facing, cloud-based system that is more…… Continue reading Do you know that your organization should request access to iQIES as soon as the onboarding for your state begins?

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare The Medicare Home Health Flexibility Act would specifically allow home health agencies the flexibility to use the most clinically appropriate skilled service to conduct the initial assessment visit and to complete the comprehensive assessments. The need for in-home service is growing as baby boomers continue to age,…… Continue reading Support S. 1725 / H. R. 3127

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare A specifications document providing technical details for OASIS-D1, effective January 1, 2020, is now available at: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Downloads/v2-31-0-OASIS-D1-changes-DRAFT.pdf These specifications supplement the information provided in the OASIS-D1 Update memorandum revised and posted May 2019 at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/HHQIOASISUserManual.html.    

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare If your agency is in a state where CGS provides services beginning January 1, 2020, you MUST submit your home health and hospice billing transactions using the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) regardless of the dates of service. Billing transactions include home health requests for anticipated payments…… Continue reading January 1, 2020: Seven Months To Go and Counting!

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare It’s that time of year when people travel for pleasure and generously share their pathogenic microorganisms. It’s also a good reminder that earlier this year CMS updated Appendix Z of the State Operations Manual to include; “Planning for using an all-hazards approach should also include emerging…… Continue reading Does your emergency preparedness program include ways to strengthen infectious disease surveillance and response?

Sharon Hamilton MS, RN, CFDS Clinical Consultant, Briggs Healthcare When a Medicare health plan, either directly or by delegation, terminates pre-authorized coverage of services from a Home Health Agency (HHA) a special expedited review procedure applies. Expedited review requests filed timely bypass the health plan’s reconsideration process, and an independent review entity known as a…… Continue reading Effective June 8, 2019, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) restructured the BFCC-QIO coverage.