Changes in Home Health Required Beneficiary Notices

Effective 1/17/2017 CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is discontinuing the Home Health Advance Beneficiary Notice [HHABN]! CMS is not discontinuing, nor changing, the requirements for beneficiary notifications. Only the FORM(S) are changing.

Quick Review

Medicare requires home health agencies to issue beneficiary notifications to original fee for service Medicare beneficiaries prior the occurrence of three distinct situations:

• Providing services that are normally covered, but that Medicare might not pay for in this instance.
• Changing covered services for a beneficiary due to agency related reasons
• Unanticipated reductions in covered services because of physician or provider orders

What is the change?

The HHABN will be discontinued and replaced with TWO forms. Form CMS-10280, Home Health Change of Care Notice (HHCCN), will replace Option Box 2 and Option Box 3 of the HHABN. The ABN or Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (CMS-R-131) will replace the HHABN Option Box 1.

What do you need to do?

Be proactive! Prepare now. The HHCCN, ABN, and instructions are available now for download at these links.

• https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-General-Information/BNI/ABN.html
• https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-General-Information/BNI/HHCCN.html

You can begin using the newly required forms at any time; no need to wait until January. Go ahead and train staff on the new requirements and set an implementation date. Just be sure to collect all blank HHABN forms prior to implementation.

As with any change, follow-up review and monitoring for compliance is recommended.