Even before President Obama’s promise to hire bounty hunters to eliminate waste and fraud from Medicare, Regional Home Health Intermediaries had been stepping up their rate of payment denials. Most often, justifications to withhold payments for already provided nursing or therapy services center around “lack of medical necessity.” In case after case, attorneys and appeals consultants […]
Dear Ms. Smith, After our long relationship as consultant and client, please know that I care for you and Mr. Smith and your business. Otherwise, I would not have gone through this much effort to draw your attention to a situation that I consider critical to your agency’s survival. I would ask that you examine […]
In our previous story, we reprinted a letter from a payment denials and appeals consultant who told a client he would stop representing their appeals until they improved their staff’s clinical documentation skills. At the end of the letter, he offered some examples of what kind of documentation they were giving him when he argued […]
President Barack Obama will nominate Donald Berwick, M.D., president and CEO at Boston’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement, as his new CMS administrator. Charlene Frizzera, COO of CMS and acting administrator since January 2009, will remain COO once Berwick is approved.
When HCTR editor Tim Rowan travels to Albuquerque next month to address the 4-state Southwest Regional Home Care Conference about home care technology, he will make the five-hour drive from Colorado Springs instead of flying. Ask him why and he answers without hesitation, “Two-hour advance arrival times, TSA security lines, airport parking fees, cramped seats, […]
In a surprise announcement Monday, telephony vendor Sandata LLC (formerly Sandata Technologies Inc.) announced that it has agreed to acquire the home healthcare assets of Health Systems Solutions, Inc., the New York- and Florida-based software company that provides products such as VividNet, The Analyzer and benchmarking services from the former HQS.
—The Hospice of Baton Rouge has been meeting end-of-life care needs in its community since 1984. When it wanted to get payroll, mileage and paperwork under control, it turned to CellTrak. — Fastrack Healthcare Systems, Inc. found that its customers were having a hard time deciding between hosted and installed software configurations. The HME, Home […]
PECOS Down Due to scheduled maintenance, Internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) will be unavailable from Monday, March 29, 2010 through Monday, April 5, 2010. Internet-based PECOS allows physicians, non-physician practitioners, providers, and other suppliers (except suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies [DMEPOS]) to enroll or make a change to […]
The Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in North Carolina has received an $870,000 grant to expand its successful remote monitoring service to more rural families. In the last three years, the first phase of the project drove down hospitalization rates to record lows, in some cases to zero.
Phytel is a technology company enabling physicians to communicate with their patients at home, and their community-based caregivers such as long term care facilities and home care agencies. It would be a good idea for home care sales and marketing staff to be familiar with what Phytel is up to.
