continuous care

Very curious about medicare's criteria for "continuous care." I was under the impression that it had to be a "skilled nursing" activity every 15 minutes. Could anyone clarify or explain what exactly they require? thanks as always...

[tewdles, RN]

"(2) Continuous home care day. A continuous home care day is a day on which an individual

who has elected to receive hospice care is not in an inpatient facility and receives hospice care

consisting predominantly of nursing care on a continuous basis at home. Home health aide or

homemaker services or both may also be provided on a continuous basis. Continuous home

care is only furnished during brief periods of crisis as described in Sec. 418.204(a) and only as

necessary to maintain the

terminally ill patient at home.

(4) The hospice payment on a continuous care day varies depending on the number of hours of

continuous services provided. The continuous home care rate is divided by 24 to yield an hourly

rate. The number of hours of continuous care provided during a continuous home care day is

then multiplied by the hourly rate to yield the continuous home care payment for that day. A

minimum of 8 hours of care must be furnished on a particular day to qualify for the continuous

home care rate."

http://www.nhpco.org/files/public/regulatory/Continuous_Home_Care.pdf

Edited Nov 26, 2009 by NRSKarenRN

[tewdles, RN]

dang links

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

dang links

Fixed it. :)