Blog

Germs and infections are constantly in the news. Norovirus, bird flu, and the Ebola virus are examples. People fear going into a care setting and getting an infection. Health care workers are tuned ...

Medicare Advantage Organization (MC) HIPPS Codes Update for SNF Encounters When No Admission Assessment Was Completed: On December 4, 2014, CMS released a memo regarding additional guidance regarding ...

The Jimmo agreement settles once and for all that Medicare coverage is available for skilled services to maintain an individual’s condition. Under the maintenance coverage standard articulated in the ...

It has become a bad routine. A new week, another data breach report in the news. The recent breach reported by Community Health Systems Inc., affected 4.5 million patients! This data breach parade ...

Effective January 1, 2014, the commonly used CPT code 92506 for evaluation of speech, language, voice, communication, and/or auditory processing will be deleted and replaced with four new, more ...

It is not uncommon for a patient in the SNF to experience a fall after having recently been discontinued from skilled Physical Therapy. Discussion often ensues around whether the patient should ...

CMS is undertaking a bold initiative to broaden quality assurance and performance improvement activities (QAPI) in nursing homes. In March 2010, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. The ...

Providers have long struggled with items that may not be modified on the MDS 3.0 assessment. Occasionally, a typographical or data entry error will cause an assessment to be submitted with the Reason ...

Today, I want to talk about Assessment Reference Date selection or ARD Management. One of the key factors for selection of ARD is the communication between the MDS Coordinator and the therapy ...

Many times as consultants when we go into buildings the staff expresses to us that they are having difficulty treating the patients. The reason being the patient is typically in too much pain. First ...

Managing the care of the patient on a daily basis is very challenging in the SNF. Medicare Part A patients who tend to be somewhat more medically complex and sicker than some of the other patients ...

Surely you have heard that there are “denials” now in the skilled care world, but do you know what this means? There are more and more auditing agencies popping up every day, from ACO to ZPIC, and ...

Successful case management for Case Mix involves the coding of the accurate minutes of care provided by therapy on the MDS for those patients seen under Medicare Part B. There is a significant ...

Today we will be discussing the Medicare meeting, otherwise known as the beneficiary review meeting. This meeting is set up so that the interdisciplinary team can discuss the clinical status of a ...

In the Final Rule FY2012, CMS provided clarification on therapy documentation and expectations in regards to changes in therapy treatment plans. Harmony recommends facilities are vigilant when ...