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12/04/2019
OIG Posts New Report on Hospice Aides
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has posted a new hospice report which examines RN supervision of hospice aides.
According to the report, entitled “Registered Nurses Did Not Always Visit Medicare Beneficiaries' Homes At Least Once Every 14 Days To Assess The Quality of Care and Services Provided by Hospice Aides (A-09-18-03022)”:
Registered nurses did not always (1) visit hospice beneficiaries' homes at least once every 14 days to assess the quality of care and services provided by hospice aides or (2) document the visits in accordance with Federal requirements. Of the approximately 189,000 high-risk date-pairs, we identified (1) an estimated 99,000 instances in which the registered nurses did not make the required supervisory visits at least once every 14 days and (2) an estimated 5,000 instances in which supervisory visits were not documented in accordance with Federal requirements.
Nurse supervision of aides is regularly one of the top citations received by hospices upon survey. Hospice RNs must visit the patient’s home every 14 days to assess the quality of care provided by hospice aides, but their visit does not need to occur when the aide is in the home, but rather, can be conducted during the course of another RN visit.
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice has provided a statement in the NAHC report that outlines their stance on this new development.