CMS Expands Home Health Pre-Claim Demonstration to Florida Beginning April 1st

CMS has decided to expand their Home Health Pre-Claim Demonstration to Florida for claims with dates of services beginning on April 1, 2017.  We have heard horror stories about the impact of this with the original demonstration state of Illinois.  CMS claims they have worked out the bugs in the system, but many of the home health agencies in Illinois disagree.  This adds to the continuing regulatory burden placed on home health agencies.  CMS continues to increase spending on the administration of the home health benefit instead of providing care to Medicare patients.

Our best hope to stop some of the insanity must begin with the new administration.  I do not know if the new CMS Administrator will stop or make changes to this program.  I hope they will listen to the US Senators who have written letters to the previous administrator to change this demonstration program. 

We will be addressing many parts of this Pre-Claim Demonstration program in our “New Directions in Home Care” seminar in Las Vegas on January 26^th & 27^th.

Link

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Monitoring-Programs/Medicare-FFS-Compliance-Programs/Pre-Claim-Review-Initiatives/Overview.html