New home health regulations take effect, improving communication with caregivers: What to know

Home health agencies will be required to become more responsive to patients and their caregivers under the first major overhaul of rules governing these organizations in almost 30 years.

The federal regulations, published last month, specify the conditions under which 12,600 home health agencies can participate in Medicare and Medicaid, serving more than 5 million seniors and younger adults with disabilities through these government programs.

They strengthen patients' rights considerably and call for caregivers to be informed and engaged in plans for patients' care. These are "real improvements," said Rhonda Richards, a senior legislative representative at AARP.

Home health agencies also will be expected to coordinate all the services that patients receive and ensure that treatment regimens are explained clearly and in a timely fashion.

The new rules are set to go into effect in July, but they may be delayed as President Donald Trump's administration reviews regulations that have been drafted or finalized but not yet implemented. The estimated cost of implementation, which home health agencies will shoulder: $293 million the first year and $234 million a year thereafter.

[Also: As home health services grow, staffing shortages emerge, experts say]

While industry lobbying could derail the regulations or send them back to the drawing board, that isn't expected to happen, given substantial consensus with regard to their contents. More likely is a delay in the implementation date, which several industry groups plan to request.

"There are a lot of good things in these regulations, but if it takes agencies another six or 12 months to prepare let's do that, because we all want to get this right," said William Dombi, vice president for law at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).

Home health services under Medicare are available to seniors or younger adults with disabilities who are confined to home and have a need, certified by a physician, for intermittent skilled nursing services or therapy, often after a hip replacement, heart attack or a stroke.

Patients qualify when they have a need to improve functioning (such as regaining the strength to walk across a room) or maintain abilities (such as retaining the capacity to get up from a chair), even when improvement isn't possible. These services are not for patients who need full-time care because they're seriously ill or people who are dying.

Several changes laid forth in the new regulations have significant implications for older adults and their caregivers:

Patient-Centered Care

In the past, patients have been recipients of whatever services home health agencies deemed necessary, based on their staffs' evaluations and input from physicians. It was a prescriptive "this is what you need and what we'll give you" approach.

Now, patients will be asked what they feel comfortable doing and what they want to achieve, and care plans will be devised by agencies with their individual circumstances in mind.

"It's much more of a 'help me help you' mentality," said Diana Kornetti, an industry consultant and president of the home health section of the American Physical Therapy Association.

While some agencies have already adopted this approach, it's going to be a "sea change" for many organizations, said Mary Carr, NAHC's vice president for regulatory affairs.

Patient Rights

For the first time, home health agencies will be obligated to inform patients of their rights -- both verbally and in writing. And the explanations must be communicated clearly, in language that patients can understand.

Several new rights are included in the regulations. Notably, patients now have a right to receive all the services deemed necessary in their plans of care. These plans are devised by agencies to address specific needs approved by a doctor, such as speech therapy or occupational therapy, and usually delivered over the course of a few months, though sometimes they last much longer. Also, patients must be informed about the agency's initial comprehensive assessment of the patient's needs and goals, as well as all subsequent assessments.

A patient's rights to lodge complaints about treatment and be free from abuse, which had already been in place, are described in more detail in the new regulations. The government surveys home health agencies every three years to make sure that its rules are being followed.

NAHC officials said they planned to develop a "notice of rights" for home health care agencies, bringing greater standardization to what has sometimes been an ad hoc notification process.

Caregiver Involvement

For the first time, agencies will be required to assess family caregivers' willingness and ability to provide assistance to patients when developing a plan of care. Also, caregivers' other obligations -- for instance, their work schedules -- will need to be taken into account.

Previously, agencies had to work with patients' legal representatives, but not "personal representatives" such as family caregivers.

"These new regulations stress throughout that it's important for agencies to look at caregivers as potential partners in optimizing positive outcomes," said Peter Notarstefano, director of home and community-based services for LeadingAge, a trade group for home health agencies, hospices and other organizations.

Plans Of Care

Now, any time significant changes are made to a patient's plan of care, an agency must inform the patient, the caregiver and the physician directing the patient's care.

"A lot of patients tell us 'I've never seen my plan of care; I don't know what's going on; the agency talks to my doctor but not to me,'" said Kathleen Holt, an attorney and associate director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. The new rules give "patients and the family a lot more opportunity to have input," she added.

In another notable change, efforts must be made to coordinate all the services provided by therapists, nurses and physicians involved with the patient's care, replacing a "siloed" approach to care that has been common until now, Notarstefano said.

Discharge Protections

Allowable reasons for discharging a patient are laid out clearly in the new rules and new safeguards are instituted. For instance, an agency can't discontinue services merely because it doesn't have enough staff.

The government's position is that agencies "have the responsibility to staff adequately," Carr of NAHC said. In the event a patient worsens and needs a higher level of services, an agency is responsible for arranging a safe and appropriate transfer.

"Agencies in the past have had the ability to just throw up their hands and say 'We can't care for you or we think we've done all we can for you and we need to discharge you,'" Holt said. Now a physician has to agree to any plan to discharge or transfer a patient, and "that will offer another layer of protection."

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