New Agency, need advice!

[Marianna Estelle]

I am new to home health & working for a start-up Home Health Agency, (I'm their 1st & only RN, and we have 1 LPN) I need documentation regarding rate of pay to provide to our administrator, I am an RN with 15 years of ER & ICU experience. I would like to address office time, mileage, SOC, Re-certs, transfers, discharges & supervisory visits. My boss is basically clueless...so I need to "educate" him & Im hoping that you guys can help! Does mileage start at the office to the pts house? Do the RNs do the coding? Any and all advice and information will be greatly appreciated...I realize that most of this stuff has been addressed in other threads, but I need it to be concise so I can print it out for him!!! I am in Northwest Florida. Thanks in advance...

[St_Claire, ADN, RN]

I work hourly so I'm paid for all hours the same including time I spend doing paperwork. Travel is from your house to the patient then subtract the miles from your house to the office. It sounds counter intuitive but if your first patient is a mile from your house and the office is five miles from your house then you will not get paid for the first visit. I get my hourly rate for the drive time plus 55 cents per mile. I work for a not-for-profit in Salt Lake.

[pblottRN]

Our agency is paid per visit and mileage generally starts at the first patient's home, unless the nurse/therapist starts from the office. Rates vary, and should be competitive with your area. Get your boss to do a salary study (or the company's HR dept) and set a scale from there. We pay a little more for weekend/holiday and after hours visits. Drive time and documentation time is included in the visit rate. The admission visits pay substantially more and are weighted at an equivalent of 2 visits, when figuring efficiencies. Recerts are 1.5. Post hospitals are 1.5. We also have multiple skill/extended visits for high tech/lengthy visits. If you are the only RN, then you will likely be the one doing the coding, and it is different for home care than any other area. There are great coding books strictly for homecare and software packages that will check OASIS for discrepancies/errors, etc. We use PPS+ software for that side of it. For the coding side, get some courses lined up quick. I've been doing this a long time, and the guidelines change frequently. Please feel free to message me if there's anything I can help with.