Update on Certifying Patients for the Medicare Home Health Benefit

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revised a MLN Matters article, "Certifying Patients for the Medicare Home Health Benefit," (SE 1436) on Wed., Dec. 31, adding clarified language. Most of the information in the article on the Medicare home health benefit, including eligibility requirements and certification/recertification of Medicare home health services stayed the same.

Attached to this MLN Matters article are several examples that point to key areas:

• hospital discharge, which documents the reason for needing skilled services, patient meeting the homebound status and whether the encounter was related to the primary reason the patient required home health services; and
• progress notes which documents the need for skilled services, why the patient was homebound and the encounter being related to the primary reason the patient required home health services.

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