WHAT IS A FACE-TO-FACE ENCOUNTER?
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires physicians to provide documentation of a face-to-face encounter for
Medicare patients referred for home health services. Home Health agencies are not allowed to provide a prepared statement
for the physician to sign regarding the face to face encounter.
We regret that this provision increases the paperwork burden for physicians so we have provided an electronic version to streamline the process.
The face-to-face encounter must occur within 90 days before or 30 days after the start of home health services, and documentation must include:
- The date of the encounter.
- Indication that the encounter was related to the primary reason for home health
- An explanation of how the clinical findings of the encounter support the need for skilled nursing or therapy services.
- An explanation of why the clinical findings of the encounter support that the patient is homebound.
- The certifying physician’s signature, and the date of that signature.