To be certain, I would have not written the 2018 proposed regulations in the manner in which they were posted earlier in the week.  The document which is technically not published because it hasn’t been certified, starts with the basic rate changes that are proposed beginning January 2018 and some important changes to the scoring system.  The most significant of these involves therapy.  Then it jumps into a couple of hundred pages (not including charts and attachments) describing a new system proposed for 2019.  By the time you finish reading about the 2019 changes and are wondering if you would look good in a Taco Bell uniform, the document once again returns to the changes for 2018.

There’s a lot of material to digest, folks.   Shall we begin?

2019 Payment System

Unlike Medicare, we are going to start with the 2019 payment system.  To call this an update or refinement is taking liberty with the concepts.  It barely stops short of introducing an entirely new payment system.  Even though the proposed implementation date isn’t until 2019, it is important that you become familiar with the payment system now so that your comments can be considered.

The document, posted here, gives the following contact information.  Whether you agree with our views or not, everyone’s voice should be heard if they have an opinion on the proposed regs.  The last day for comments is September 25, 2017.  Mark your calendars.   Here’s where comments should be submitted.

Electronically. You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions under the “More Search Options” tab.

By regular mail. You may mail written comments to the following address ONLY:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Department of Health and Human Services,
Attention: CMS-1672-P,
P.O. Box 8016,
Baltimore, MD 21244-8016.

There are additional addresses for overnight and in person delivery in the document.

Home Health Grouping Model

If all goes according to plan (doubtful but let’s pretend that it will), we will see the advent of Home Health Grouping Models.   Patients will fall into one of six groups depending on their primary diagnosis.  If there is a problem with an assessment falling into one these groups, the claim will likely be sent back to the provider who will have to produce coding with improved accuracy.

These groups are:

1. MMTA                                            Medication Management and Teaching
2. MS                                                  Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
3. Wound                                          Includes ulcers, surgical incisions, skin lesions, etc.
4. Complex Nursing:                     Determined by diagnosis code
5. Neuro, Stroke, Rehab              Self Explanatory
6. Behavioral                                  Usually called psych

Therapy

Here’s a change that might interest you.  There will be no adjustment for therapy in this system.  The payment is built into the grouping models.   Please feel free to leave your comments below.  We want to know what you think.

Admission Source

Then there’s the Admission Source component of payment in 2019.   You will have four choices:

1. Institutional Early
2. Institutional Late
3. Community Early
4. Community Late

The rationale for these admission source criteria is that patients admitted from the hospital generally require more resources than those admitted from the community.

Comorbidities

There are 841 diagnoses that will bump up payment if they entered as a comorbid condition.   Here’s how you find them.  Go to https://www.cms.gov/center/provider-Type/home-Health-Agency-HHA-Center.html.

The first section is called, ‘Spotlights’.  There are three paragraphs followed by four links.  The link called, HHGM Grouping Tool has a nifty little spreadsheet where you can calculate payment according to the proposed rules.  Download it and extract all the files.  The very last extracted Excel file (above the Help file which I didn’t bother to read) is a ‘toy’ grouper.   That’s a very fun tool and I’m sure you’ll be using it a lot.  However, to find the significant comorbidities mentioned above, look at the tabs on the bottom of your screen.  One is called, ‘ICD-10 DXs’.  Click it.  There you will find almost 70,000 diagnosis codes.  Do not be alarmed.  Click Ctrl and the letter F at the same time.  A search box will appear on your screen.  Type ‘yes’ in the search box and ‘Find All’ at the bottom of the search box.  The comorbid conditions will be presented to you.

If anyone can tell me how to extract only those codes, feel free to let me know.

Functional Level

 This is the last step of the proposed payment system is similar to the current system with two notable additions.  M1033 –  Risk for Hospitalization and M1800 – Grooming have been added as contributors to the functional level.   The rest of the questions are the same:

• M1810: Dressing Upper Body.
• M1820: Dressing Lower Body.
• M1830: Bathing.
• M1840: Toileting.
• M1850: Transferring.
• M1860: Ambulation/Locomotion

Using the Medicare Grouper tool, you can enter data for your patients and see how they compare to your current case mix weights.  Alternatively, you can call us for assistance and for a very reasonable price, we will come up with a comparison of your case mix weights as they stand now to how they would fall out in 2019.  No dollar value has been assigned.

Questions

1.  Medical Boards across the country are monitoring prescriptions of narcotics. According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, as many as 17% of adults age 60 and over abuse prescription drugs. Narcotic pain killers, sleeping pills and tranquillizers are common medications of abuse.  An increase in the use of therapy, often ordered for pain management, can reduce the need for these meds.  Has anyone tried to determine with a large amount of data if this is the case?
2. More to the point, does this payment system create an environment where agencies are given incentive to reduce therapy to the detriment of patient care?
3. Billing for home health is a complex process. 30-day episodes will result in almost double the amount of work for the office staff increasing expenses without contributing to patient outcomes.  Will billing requirements be lessened?
4. With 60-day episodes, there is occasionally a situation when an agency admits a patient who is a patient of another agency because the prior agency did not drop a RAP timely. The likelihood of this happening will greatly increase in a 30-day episode.  Will there be any protection for agencies who admit a patient of another agency unknowingly?
5. In the early years of PPS, points were only awarded for the primary diagnosis resulting in widespread upcoding. Many nurses were upcoding in good faith because their supervisors had told them to put Ortho, Diabetes, Neuro or Trauma codes first.  Is the 6-clinical group method creating a similar situation?

 The current political environment casts doubt on whether any of this will be implemented and raises the chances that it will be postponed.  This does not cancel our obligation to make our opinions known because there are changes on the way.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments.  The Coders will be submitting comments about the 2019 payment system and we hope that you do, too.

2018 Changes

Our Cliff Notes version of the 2018 payment updates is coming soon.  We promise.  We find it easier to understand one year at a time and think you will, too.  And because your deadline for comments is only a few weeks away for 2019 payment system, we tackled that first.  So, for today, that’s all, Folks.  Keep us posted with any news that you hear.