Face To Face Answers, Second Edition

Face To Face Answers, Second Edition, is the complete guide to mastering home health and hospice face-to-face (F2F) requirements. It provides a rundown of how face-to-face encounters have evolved as a regulatory mainstay for home health and hospice with clarity around the rules as currently written. It also serves as a reference for agency teams detailing how the rules and interpretive guidance should be applied on a day-to-day basis to ensure compliance and retention of reimbursement for services provided.

Home health regulatory expert Sharon Harder authors this must-have reference, which provides best practices and tools to ensure your agency is compliant with F2F rules.

Despite numerous changes in the decade since face-to-face encounters were first introduced, this piece of the eligibility formula continues to be a source of confusion and a top reason of pre-claim rejections under the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) and post-payment denials stemming from Additional Documentation Requests (ADRs).

Get ahead of audits and prevent denials with Face To Face Answers, Second Edition, which provides the following key information to help you master F2F requirements:

• Current state of home health and hospice face-to-face encounter requirements to ensure you're following the most current rules
• Best practices for acquiring the encounter record and determining the patient’s eligibility for services, including a list of acceptable forms of encounter documentation
• Details on the relationship between the face to face and the initial plan of care
• A rundown of the billing requirements related to face-to-face encounters, including the use of telehealth for face-to-face encounters
• Home health and hospice pre-claim face to face review scenarios – so you can prepare now to pass pre-claim audits
• Steps to take when responding to ADRs, what to do if claims get denied, and how to navigate the appeals process
• Home health and hospice pre-claim audit checklists
• A chapter devoted to hospice face-to-face requirements, including details on hospice liability for untimely encounters, the relationship between the face-to-face encounter and certification of terminal illness, use of functional measures in hospice face to face encounters, billing face to face visits, and more!

Published: December 2022

Page count: 194
ISBN: 978-1-64535-202-0

About the Author

Sharon S. Harder is the president of C3 Advisors, LLC, and vice president of Home and Community Care, Canton & Company. She oversees all home health and hospice client projects, the majority of which are focused on compliance issues including scheduled Medicare/Medicaid compliance audits, acquisition due diligence, preparation of responses to investigations, and labor/compensation issues. In addition, Harder was a founder of a successful pediatric healthcare company providing center-based extended care to medically fragile patients along with home health, medical equipment, and infusion services offered in partnership with major children’s hospitals. She is a frequent speaker on home health and hospice regulatory issues and has authored numerous articles on key industry topics, including recent contributions on Value-Based Purchasing, emergency preparedness, and the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM).