You Asked:
Can visits by both a hospice registered nurse and social worker count as billable units towards the Service Intensity Add-On (SIA) payment if they are in the home of a hospice patient at the same time in the last 7 days of life?
We Answered:
LeadingAge Ohio reached out to Palmetto GBA who answered with the following: To constitute a visit, the discipline must have provided care to the beneficiary. Hospices report all visits performed by hospice staff in 15-minute increments using revenue codes and associated HCPCS.
When recording any visit, providers should sum the time for each visit or call, rounding to the nearest 15-minute increment. Providers should not include travel time or documentation time in the time recorded for any visit.
So, if both the RN and SW visits meet the definition of a visit described above, both of their visit would be billable for a SIA payment.