COVID-19 Resource Center

Tracking Expenditures of CARES Act Provider Relief Funds

Hit a wall with Relief Funds Accounting...WE CAN HELP!

 

HPS can provide guidance to and assist agencies in accumulating the necessary data for the required reporting of the use of the Health & Human Services (HHS) relief funds and lost revenue. In addition, HPS can assist in the reporting for the forgiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan funds.

COVID-19 Update for Home Health and Hospice Webinar

While facing the crisis of the century in healthcare, this HPS Alliance member only webinar will serve to provide clarifications on what is happening so quickly within the industry and address these changes.

Not an Alliance member? Sign up today for access to all of our online webinars! Our annual membership provides members with the education necessary to establish and maintain a successful agency.

COVID-19: Imperative Home Health and Hospice Updates

As we are facing the pandemic of the century, home health and hospices are on the frontline of this Public Health Emergency (PHE) along with hospitals, physicians and all other healthcare workers. We at Healthcare Provider Solutions, Inc. would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for your true dedication to treating patients and helping the world to be a healthier place.

The Trump Administration has taken extraordinary steps in getting relief passed in the form of The CARES Act and CMS has in turn taken the initiative to speed up the rulemaking process in providing temporary waivers for home health to benefit from the changes outlined in the CARES Act Relief Package. There were also numerous waivers that were initiated before the CARES Act that provided relief from all the red tape and making room for patient care to be the focus without extensive concern for timeliness of paperwork.

Stay Sane and Keep Revenue Healthy during COVID-19

Melinda Gaboury, COS-C, CEO and founder of Healthcare Provider Solutions, Inc., is a highly respected educator and speaker on home health and hospice revenue cycle management, with over 17 years of experience.  Industry leader eSolutions Inc., recently asked her to join them for an exclusive Q&A session focused on the impact of COVID-19, and how the crisis amplifies other major industry shifts.

Listen to the full Q&A session here:

What’s the single most important thing agency revenue cycle teams should focus on, right now?
Revenue cycle teams should focus on getting the claims out the door, not just Medicare claims but all payers that they work with. Without the billing going out, money is not coming in. The number one focus – obviously, other than staying healthy themselves – is to ensure those claims are getting sent, because they are getting processed and paid if they’re getting sent.
What are the early results of the PDGM transition for HHAs, in terms of getting paid accurately?
If you are getting clean RAPs and clean finals to the MACs, agencies are generally getting paid. It’s much better than we anticipated last year when we were educating people on the implementation of PDGM – had that been a failure, had agencies not been getting paid and COVID happened on top of that, it would’ve been catastrophic to home health agencies.

It is absolutely critical that agencies understand that under PDGM, for 2020 claims, you 100% must use the MBI – the patient’s Medicare Beneficiary Identifier – and you 100% must use that on both the OASIS and the claim.

How can agencies leverage automation and analytics to avoid negative effects of PDGM and the COVID-19 crisis?
Electronic signature of orders is imperative. I hope that there is someone within your organization from an operations, analytical and financial standpoint who is still monitoring the situation from the PDGM side of things in addition to what COVID19 is doing to us. Use the reports that are within your systems.

Hang in there as much as you can. Until we get to a point where we can focus more solely on PDGM, but don’t give it up at this point, and for anything. Keep billing.

How are home health revenue cycle teams adjusting to a work-from-home environment, and how can team leaders ensure billing continues to be timely and accurate?
Home health and hospice agencies have generally had a smooth transition to working from home thanks to having electronic health records and tools like eSolutions that allow home health agency billing teams to work from home.

There needs to be a daily conference call with staff working remotely, concerns and questions that come up need to be addressed, and administrative, operations, supervisory staff need to have access to reports they can print to ensure that the billing and collections are happening as timely as they can and as they were before.

To home health and hospice employees: We appreciate everything that you’re doing. We are behind you 100%. We would not be here without you, and we want to try to do everything and anything we can to keep you out there taking care of patients, so that we in turn, can remain healthy as well.

COVID-19: Emergency Financial Relief for Home Health & Hospice Providers

(UPDATED – 05/14/2020) The CMS Accelerated and Advance Payments Program program was suspended on April 26, 2020 and no further Accelerated Payments are happening at this time. During this Public Health Emergency (PHE) there are several avenues of obtaining cash to keep your agency going. This article addresses two of those. The Accelerated and Advance Payments Program allows agencies to get an advance on Medicare payments and it must be repaid. The other is the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund that is being automatically disbursed. Agencies will not need to repay these funds, however, there are accountability requirements for accepting and using these funds.

COVID-19 Insights from Our Blog

 

Monday Minute with Melinda

Telehealth Clarification at the End of the Public Health Emergency for Home Health and Hospice (VIDEO)

By Melinda A. Gaboury, CEO / Posted on: May 8, 2023

In this Monday Minute, we discuss the official end of the Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023, causing many of the 1135 waivers to be discontinued on the same day.

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Monday Minute with Melinda

Waivers Ending for Hospice Agencies as the Public Health Emergency is Terminated (VIDEO)

By Melinda A. Gaboury, CEO / Posted on: April 3, 2023

In this Monday Minute, we will talk about the waivers ending for hospice agencies as the Public Health Emergency ends.

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Monday Minute with Melinda

Waivers Ending for Home Health Agencies as the Public Health Emergency is Terminated (VIDEO)

By Melinda A. Gaboury, CEO / Posted on: March 27, 2023

In this week’s Monday Minute, we will talk about the waivers ending for home health agencies as the Public Health Emergency ends.

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Melinda A. Gaboury

Melinda A. Gaboury

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

D. Mark Cannon, CPA

D. Mark Cannon, CPA

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Aaron D. Carey

Aaron D. Carey

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