When is the last time you entered a complaint in your grievance log? One of the core standards of focus for hospice surveyors is §418.52(b)-Exercise of rights and respect for property and person. The interpretive guidelines for this standard state that a “grievance is a formal or informal written or verbal complaint made to any…
Tag: COP
CMS Updates
CMS recently updated the Code of Federal Regulations for Home Health Services (Part 484) as well as the Medicare Benefit Policy Manuals—Chapter 7 for Home Health Agencies. The changes reflect alterations in the Conditions of Participation released in the home health final rule last year and became effective on January 1, 2022. There is always…
Conditions of Participation
When it comes to the Conditions of Participation for both home health care and hospice, there are different sources for this information. Organizations often search the State Operations Manual (SOM) for CoPs. However, it’s important to remember that this document is a guide for state surveyors and doesn’t contain other information such as Conditions for…
Occupational Therapist CoP Changes
Year 2022 is almost here and those of us in home health care must consider the Final Rule and changes which become effective on January 1, 2022. One alteration to the Conditions of Participation is the allowance of an occupational therapist to perform the initial visit and comprehensive assessment. This is a bit of a…
Proposed Hospice Final Rule Change
CMS proposes to make some of the waiver changes permanent. One of these modifications is regarding hospice aide training. The current CoP, 418.76 (c)(1) specifies aides must be evaluated by observation of their performance of the task with a live patient. The proposed change would affect CoP 418.3 by allowing evaluation of aide competency to…
