It is worth the time and effort it takes for nurses, therapists and staffs to learn new documenting and processing procedures so they can submit claims for services that often are provided without charge but could be separately billable services, according to the author of a paper in Advances in Skin & Wound Care.
Such services may include outpatient therapy, laboratory services, infusion services and disposable negative-pressure wound therapy. Home health agencies that expand into them can offer additional services to their patients and see increased revenue as well, author Kathleen D. Schaum said.
“When this author asked executives from these HHAs that had already added separately billable services if they had words of advice for other HHA is considering a similar expansion, nearly every executive said to ‘verify your state regulations and review regulatory standards pertaining to the services you wish to perform,’ ” she wrote.
