Allegheny Messages

We have been reworking & improving the Generic / Free Form 485 Plan of Care that includes the physician face to face encounter, that we announced previously, and feel we are very close to the final format. Our tendancy at this point is to make this 485 format the default format for all new 485’s added as of January 1, 2011. Users will have the ability to override to the old format if desired. The new format will give us greater flexibility for future changes but still looks like the format that users have been use to seeing for years.

Below are the changes we plan to make in HHC3000 to satisfy the new physician face to face requirement that becomes effective January 1, 2011.

First, we plan to add a checkbox in the 485 plan of care to include a face to face documentation section on the printout. On November 17th we added a new Free Form / Generic alternative format to the 485. The face to face section printing will be added to the alternative format first. The will be incorporated into the current physician’s signature section on the first page, thus only requiring one physician signature. We would appreciate if agencies could review this new format and let us know if it can meet your needs instead of the current format that’s been around for years. As always we are willing to make changes based upon your suggestions. The new format looks similiar to the old format but eliminates the splitting of sections to the 487. We plan to also include the same face to face section in the current 485 format, but it’s going to be more difficult for us to do. It will probably require a seperate section at the end of the plan of care, requiring a second physician signature.

Second, to the physician order we plan to add another “special type of order” option called the face to face encounter. Post button will be added to enter the face to face verbage into the memo section of the order. You could also do the same thing with phrases.

Since the face to face encounter is a requirement for billing, the will be some changes to the PPS Billing Information section of the program. We determining the best way to do this.

For reporting purposes we will probably have to add date fields to the plan of care and the physician order.

Modifications to these changes will be made for hospice.