OASIS-Central

Q: Do we need to get a verbal confirmation from the doctor’s office after start of care or can we leave a message on their voicemail that we have started with the patient and what our plan is? If it has to be a verbal confirmation, what should we do when we can’t get the doctor’s office to call back?

A: A home health agency must receive verbal or written orders from a qualified physician for home health services prior to delivering those services. Locator 23 of the 485 Plan of Care is used to capture the date these orders were obtained. Leaving a message with a physician’s office does not serve as verbal or written physician orders. How an agency chooses to respond back to the physician’s office with findings of the assessment is not captured on the 485 or OASIS assessment. However, the physician who establishes the plan of care is required to sign and date the plan of care (Locator 27) prior to billing for services, indicating the plan was reviewed and the physician certifies the need for the services.

In responding to M2002, Medication Follow up on the OASIS assessment, if “clinically significant medication issues” are identified, a response of “1 – Yes” that the physician or the physician-designee was contacted within one calendar day can only be selected if the communication to the physician or physician-designee was made by telephone, voicemail, electronic means, fax, or any other means that appropriately conveys the message of patient status and the physician responds to the agency communication with acknowledgment of receipt of information and/or further advice or instructions.