Certification that are accurate and timely are a key element in managing a compliant hospice agency. Certifications are not only for medical record compliance and proper patient care, but also impact the efficiency and success of the billing department to get claims paid in a timely manner. Hospice Benefit Periods First, we have to define…
Read moreIn part one we discussed the process for how hospice marketers should handle objections. You can read the full article here: https://www.hospicetools.com/supercharge-your-hospice-referrals-with-objection-handling/ To recap, when presented with an objection there are 5 tips to remember: 1. Stop Take a breath. Don’t say anything for at least 1-2 seconds. Responding immediately means you haven’t heard the…
Read moreHospice agencies rely on their marketers to grow their business by generating referrals. It’s the marketers job to connect with referral sources, present their agencies truthfully, professionally, and as the agency best suited to handle the referral sources’ hospice appropriate patients. If you approach sales as a numbers game and get your face in front…
Read moreHospice Medicaid Room & Board Pass-Through Billing Medicaid, which differs from state to state, enacted a rule that when hospice patients are housed in a facility such as a skilled nursing facility, the hospice agency bills Medicaid for the facility’s room and board daily rate. Medicaid then pays the hospice agency the lump sum of…
Read moreIt’s time to shift gears again. On July 31, 2020, CMS issued final rule (CMS-1733-F) that updates the Medicare hospice payments for FY 2021, in accordance with existing statutory and regulatory requirements. There are important changes to pay attention to as these changes will impact your agency’s Election Statement. 1. The Right to Request Notification…
Read moreIt’s YOUR Data! The only thing worse than having your data held hostage by your EMR is census based pricing. A commitment to partnership & service isn’t just words. Partnership means a commitment to service & delivering features that your clients actually need and not nickel and diming them for what should be core functionality…
Read moreWhether your hospice agency is a startup or a nationwide enterprise, your team members will appreciate having checklists by discipline to help keep them on track. Check back regularly as we add more checklists for additional hospice & palliative team members or hop over to our help page @ https://www.hospicetools.com/hospice-tools-help-guide/ Click on a checklist to…
Read moreThe hospice plan of care is consistently flagged as a CMS top deficiency for hospice agencies. According to CMS in 2019 nearly 60% of hospices got flagged for a deficiency relating to plan of care and hospice aide services Click here for the full OIG 2019 report: https://www.hospicetools.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Hospice-Deficiencies-Pose-Risks-to-Medicare-Beneficiaries-OIG-Report.pdf 1. What is a Hospice Plan of…
Read moreThe corona virus pandemic has upended the traditional service sales process. Unlike service sales, product sales have shown resiliency and flexibility to adapt to the new reality. This adaptability is not because product salespeople are better – it is because they are less important! For a growing number of product companies the position can be…
Read moreWhile hospice rating are measured based solely off CHAPS surveys of your agencies level of care, scheduling of your team, bereavement program and ‘front-end’ hospice operations, if your agency isn’t getting paid completely and timely, your care and agency ratings will suffer. We all know more than one example of when an agency was rocked…
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