Provider Resources
Your Patient’s Journey to Peace Begins With Us.
Our hospice team can admit patients within 24 hours of a referral.
Contact
540.741.3580 or
hospice.intake@mwhc.com.
Mary Washington Hospice
Hospice is a very special kind of care and support service for anyone dealing with a life-limiting illness. Mary Washington Hospice has learned that the earlier hospice care begins the more meaningful and beneficial the support is for patients, caregivers and loved ones. We help people live comfortably, with dignity and manage patients’ pain and symptoms so they can more easily make decisions. We assist families in working through end-of-life logistics while grieving the illness and loss of a loved one. Preparations for the future are made with the patient so that their final days can be spent in peace with family and loved ones.
Our hospice team can admit a patient within 24 hours of a referral.
Who is Eligible?
Patients of all ages who have a prognosis of 6 months or less, if the disease follows its usual course; patients must forgo Medicare coverage for curative treatments related to terminal illness.
Primary Goals of Hospice Care
Improved quality of life and relief of suffering (physical, emotional and spiritual).
Interdisciplinary Team Approach
This team includes physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, expressive therapists and volunteers as dictated by statute.
Appropriateness for Hospice Services
Patients can remain with hospice for as long as they meet hospice criteria. The patient’s plan of care is reviewed regularly for appropriateness by the Hospice interdisciplinary team, including the attending physician.
Payment/Coverage
Medicare hospice benefit; standard hospice benefit from commercial payers is usually modeled after Medicare; Medicaid, although coverage varies by state; medication costs for illnesses related to the terminal illness.
Places of Care
Places of care include home (most common), assisted living facilities, nursing homes, residential hospice facilities, inpatient hospice units, or hospice-contracted inpatient beds. The overall intent is to allow the patient to stay at his/her place of residence.
How to Refer
For a hospice services consultation or for more information, please call 540.741.3580 or e-mail hospice.intake@mwhc.com.
Hospice Care Consult includes:
- Estimated life expectancy less than six months.
- Qualifying terminal diagnosis
- Is a service rather than a geographical location, the patient must have a place of residence in order to receive hospice services.
- Hospice provides intermittent RN, social work and bereavement support, with Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), chaplain, therapy services, and volunteers as appropriate or requested.
- Bereavement support is available for the family for 13 months after the patient’s death.
- Patients may require different levels of care based on clinical needs, including respite, general inpatient (GIP) and continuous care.
- Hospice RN is available 24/7 to respond to patients/family/physicians.
Hospice Consult Examples:
- Family decisive and authorizing extubation due to futile aggressive interventions; family seeking comfort care measures only.
- End stage heart disease optimally treated or is not a candidate for surgical intervention (CHF NYHA class IV or EF <20%).
- Progression of end stage lung disease with frequent ED visits or hospitalizations for infections, respiratory failure.
Hospice care appropriateness is based on the patient’s symptoms and the complexity of symptom management.
Advance Care Planning (ACP) Billing Guide
Face to Face Advance Care Discussion*
Face to face service between a physician or other qualified healthcare professional (QHP) and a patient, family member or surrogate in counseling and discussing advance directives, with or without completing relevant legal forms.
Advance Directive per CPT
Per CPT, an advance directive is defined as a document appointing an agent and/or recording the wishes of a patient pertaining to his/her medical treatment at a future time should he/she lack decisional capacity at that time.
Documentation Required
While CMS did not identify documentation requirements, consider documenting relevant aspects listed below when applicable:
- Identify patient, family member and / or surrogate, and others present for discussion.
- Describe existence or completion of any and all legal documentation including durable power of attorney for health care / health care proxy, medical orders of life-sustaining treatment, physician orders for life-sustaining treatment, Living Will, etc.
- Patients health care / medical care preferences (priorities, goals and values that would influence future medical care, worries and concerns that may direct medical care, type of care and setting preferred, type of care patient would never want).
- Discussion and questions related to goals of care, advance directives and the designation of a health care decision maker.
- Document “Start” and “End” time, and “Total ACP” time.
* Since January 1, 2016, Medicare has reimbursed physicians for time spent engaged in face-to-face conversations with their patients about advance care planning.
Duration of ACP Discussion and Appropriate ACP Codes:
- First 30 minutes: 99497
- 31–60 minutes: 99497 + 99498
- 61–90 minutes: 99497 + 99498 x2
- 91–120 minutes: 99497 + 99498 x3
ACP Codes cannot be billed with critical care codes.
ACP codes CAN be used with Evaluation and Management code if the services
were rendered.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
- Can ACP codes be billed with Critical Care codes? NO
- Can ACP codes be used with Evaluation and Management codes? YES
- Are there any locations where ACP codes cannot be used? NO
- Are there limits on how often ACP codes can be billed? NO
- Does an Advance Directive have to be completed in order to bill ACP? NO
References
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2015-28005.pdf, p199, pp240-254
