{"id":492,"date":"2018-09-19T15:37:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T15:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=492"},"modified":"2018-09-19T15:37:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T15:37:38","slug":"survey-certification-beware-aide-competency-testing-under-final-igs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/19\/survey-certification-beware-aide-competency-testing-under-final-igs\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey & Certification: Beware Aide Competency Testing Under Final IGs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Medicare tweaked testing IGs \u2014 but not enough.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final Interpretive Guidelines for the Home Health Conditions of Participation contain a little good news and a lot of bad news for home health agencies when it comes to competency testing for home health aides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The downside of the final IGs is that competency testing for aides \u201cstill requires that validation of competency be completed on a patient rather than on another person in a laboratory setting,\u201d points out consultant\u00a0Kathy Roby\u00a0<\/strong>with\u00a0Qualidigm\u00a0<\/strong>based in Wethersfield, Connecticut. The CoPs effective this past January address the issue at 484.80(c)(1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the\u00a0Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u00a0<\/strong>removed the language allowing competency testing on a \u201cpseudo-patient\u201d in the draft\u00a0IGs,and stated that \u201cthe following skills must be evaluated by observing the aide\u2019s performance while carrying out the task with a patient \u2026 (ix) Appropriate and safe techniques\u00a0in\u00a0performing personal hygiene and grooming tasks that include \u2026 (B) Sponge, tub, and shower bath,\u201d home health agencies hoped CMS would modify the language in the final IGs to allow testing on pseudo-patients such as peers and volunteers, or to change the \u201cand\u201d to an \u201cor\u201d in the \u201cSponge, tub, and shower bath\u201d statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CMS did neither in the CoPs. Requiring competency testing on actual patients \u201crepresents a critical investment of time, staffing and scheduling to bring the new aides to patients\u2019 homes for this validation,\u201d Roby says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bright spot:\u00a0<\/strong>CMS did, however, clarify that aide competency applies only to new employees after Jan. 13, 2018, says consultant\u00a0J\u2019non Griffin<\/strong>, owner of\u00a0Home Health Solutions\u00a0<\/strong>in Carbon Hill, Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final IGs add this statement: \u201cHHA aides who successfully completed a competency evaluation prior to January 13, 2018, do not need to repeat the portions of the competency evaluation required to be done while providing services to a patient under \u00a7484.80 (b) (i), (iii), (ix), (x), and (xi). For all HHA aides who receive a competency evaluation after January 13, 2018, however, these skills must be tested while the aide is providing care to a patient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: See the new final IGs released Aug. 31 at\u00a0www.cms.gov\/Medicare\/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification\/SurveyCertificationGenInfo\/Downloads\/QSO18-25-HHA.pdf<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source- SuperCoder<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Medicare tweaked testing IGs \u2014 but not enough. The final Interpretive Guidelines for the Home Health Conditions of Participation contain a little good news and a lot of bad news … Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11,12],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compliance","tag-home-care","tag-hospice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advantagehcconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}