Physicians, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Open Door Forum Update

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Special Open Door Forum:

Home Health Electronic Clinical Template and Home Health Paper Clinical Template

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

1:30-2:30 pm Eastern Time

Conference Call Only

In fiscal year 2014, the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program found that more than half (51.4 percent) of the home health claims were paid improperly. Of the 1308

CERT-reviewed claim lines in error, approximately 90 percent were found to have insufficient documentation errors.

To assist physicians/practitioners in documenting patient eligibility for the Medicare home health benefit, CMS is considering the development of a voluntary electronic clinical template and a voluntary home health paper clinical template. CMS believes the use of clinical templates may reduce burden on the physicians and practitioners who order home health services. The templates have been in the development process for the past year. As part of the developmental process, CMS has been hosting a series of Special Open Door Forum calls to provide an opportunity for physicians/practitioners, home health agencies and all other interested parties to provide feedback on the draft templates. The next and final Open Door Forum to discuss the draft templates will take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 1:30p.m. EST.

Below is the link to our event page where the templates will be posted:

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Monitoring-Programs/Medicare-FFS-Compliance-Programs/Medical-Review/Home_Health_Medical_Review_Update.html

Feedback and questions on the templates can be sent to: HomeHealthTemplate@cms.hhs.gov.

We value all of the comments submitted and consider each one, but we cannot guarantee all questions will be addressed during the Open Door Forum Call. We will try to address the most common issues/concerns received. CMS will continue to accept comments sent to the email address even after the call. Stakeholders are encouraged to submit questions or comments as quickly as possible.    

We look forward to your participation.

Special Open Door Participation Instructions:

Participant Dial-In Number: 1-800-603-1774

Conference ID#: 78964234

Note TTY Communications Relay Services are available for the Hearing Impaired. For TTY services dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880. A Relay Communications Assistant will help.