Hello! 

We have worked with quite a few contracted therapy groups.  Only one group was actually Medicare Certified to provide home care.  When we onboard the contracted therapy team, we make sure between our onboarding and their company training that we meet all the requirements for onboarding to Medicare home care.  In addition, we spent time training on our EMR, processes, Medicare specific training such as issuing Medicare notices etc. 

For example, one of the groups that we contract with works out of an ALF.  When we first contracted, we asked for the onboarding and training they provide to their therapy group at the ALF.  Then we compared it to our initial training checklists (which are Medicare compliant for home health).  From this, we created a contracted therapy checklist specific to this contracted group. 

The setup of the checklist we created has two columns.  In the first column, we listed the items that they have already trained on and had in their employee files that met the Medicare home care training requirements. The second column was set up for the items that our agency needed to provide education on that supplemented their training so that between their facility training and our agency training, we met all Medicare home care training requirements. 

We work with a few different therapy groups and each one has a checklist that is different in regards to what we need to train on depending on what their agency onboarding contains. 

We have had no issues or deficiencies during surveys with this process in the 8 years I have been with our agency. 

The key is that anyone working for your Medicare home health agency has to have training as laid out in the regulations.  Some agencies that I know, have completed their FULL home care onboarding process to assure they meet the requirements.  There is no right or wrong way to do this.  It really depends on the contracted therapy group you work with and the time they have to commit to onboarding to your agency. 

I hope this helps!  Others may have other ideas.

Thanks

Jess

Jessica Downs, RN | Executive Director of Clinical Operations

Corporate Office

2586 7th Ave E, Suite 302, North St. Paul MN 55109

Phone: 651.789.8771 | Fax: 651.305.1197

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From: medicarecompliance@list.mnhomecare.org <medicarecompliance@list.mnhomecare.org> On Behalf Of Guddal, Laura
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2022 11:25 AM
To: 'medicarecompliance@list.mnhomecare.org' <medicarecompliance@list.mnhomecare.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Physical therapy contract

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Hi,

My home care agency is currently thinking about contracting with a physical therapy group.  Our home care agency is Medicare certified and the physical therapy company is not. What issues would this pose to initiating the contract or what are reasons that would hinder us from partnering with them?

Laura Guddal, RN, PHN

Home Care Supervisor

Le Sueur County Public Health

88 South Park

Le Center, MN 56057

Phone: 507-357-8528

Cell: 507-560-0371

Fax: 507-357-4223

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