Pandemic Relief via legislation, CMS waivers, and enforcement discretion

• Telehealth
• Waived requirement to use volunteers
• Waive non-core services (physical, occupational, and speech pathology) *hospice only
• Waive on-site visits for hospice aide supervision

Telehealth and Telephonic Visits

• CMS permits hospices to provide telehealth to a Medicare patient receiving routine home care during the emergency period, if it is feasible and appropriate to do so.
• Face-to-face encounters for purposed of patient recertification for the Medicare hospice benefit can now be conducted via telehealth (must be 2-way audio-visual)
• Must be physician-ordered and on the plan of care

In an effort to protect patients, some SNF, LTC, hospice, and other facilities are limiting the number of visits that Abode Healthcare staff may make to patients in their care. Some patients are even requesting fewer in-person visits to reduce their exposure to the outside world. Abode Healthcare understands and joins in these protection measures by offering telehealth visits. In some cases where access has been limited or is desired, Abode staff are utilizing telehealth on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in order to maintain contact with high-risk patients. In all cases, telehealth visits are meant to be supplementary to in-person patient visits. Telehealth visits should not replace in-person visits altogether. Telehealth Tools Our commitment, as always, is to serve our patients as best we can. Our clinical team has been trained in effective ways to utilize telehealth systems to streamline patient care through our own remote access system using the following tools:

• Phone: Abode Healthcare staff may conduct remote visits with patients through phone calls.
• Video: Abode Healthcare staff may conduct remote visits with patients through Doxy.me. (All F2F between NPs or MDs, DOs must be done through a 2-way type of technology. This is for both HH and Hospice)
• me can be utilized via tablets or phone and has been selected by Abode due to the ease of use for both the clinician and the patient/family/caregiver as well as its ability to capture/validate that the tele visit occurred, and its security features.

Though telehealth is never our first choice, it is the right choice during this time. Abode Healthcare continues to partner with providers to preserve the health and wellbeing of all of our patients.