Home Health Electronic/Paper Clinical Template Final Forum

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold the last Special Open Door Forum (SODF) on Tues., April 28 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the Home Health Electronic Clinical Template and a Home Health Paper Clinical Template. As most, if not all Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) have experienced, having doctor's thoroughly document the reason for the Medicare home health benefit has been an ongoing issue. Again, the purpose of the forums has been to review the development of a voluntary home health paperclinical template. As per the announcement, a voluntary home health electronic clinical template has been in the development process for the past year.

LeadingAge NY has previously posted that CMS has been hosting this series of Special Open Door Forum (SODF) calls to provide an opportunity for physicians/practitioners, home health agencies and/or all other interested parties to provide feedback on both a paper clinical template and the electronic clinical template for home health services. 

As previously reported per CMS, "in fiscal year (FY) 2014, the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program found that more than half (51.4%) of the home health claims were paid improperly. One of the drivers of the home health error rate is inadequate documentation supporting the face-to-face requirement."

Templates will be posted here.

As per CMS, the new version of the draft Home Health Electronic Clinical Template and the new draft Paper Template have been developed. They have removed the old versions to minimize confusion.  

Again CMS is asking for feedback and comments regarding this draft template be sent to HomeHealthTemplate@cms.hhs.gov, and stressed once the final document is in final approved format, the use of this documentation tool will be voluntary.

Dial-In Number: 1-800-603-1774
Conference ID #: 78964234

Contact: Cheryl Udell, cudell@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871