Frequently Asked Questions of the Month
If a patient doesn’t have a car or transportation, are they considered homebound?
No. Medicare’s criteria for defining homebound does not include transportation. In other words, whether a patient has transportation does not factor into whether a person is considered homebound or not. Clinicians should consider the patient’s medical conditions when determining whether a person is homebound.
Does the distance a person can ambulate impact their homebound status? I have heard if a patient can ambulate 150’, they are no longer homebound.
No. Medicare does not specify an ambulatory distance limitation when defining homebound status. Additionally, Medicare forbids “rules of thumb” from being applied. Ambulation ability needs to be focused on safety and distances that are required to function within the patients’ home and community environments. There is a two-step process to qualify a patient for the homebound status, and it is not dependent on the distance a patient can ambulate.
Symbria is committed to maintaining a high standard and level of communication with our clients and employees regarding clinical education, PDGM understanding, patient assessment, home health regulations, and coding efficiency. As a result, the Home Health Insider was born. In this monthly offering, we hope to provide some valuable information that can foster a quality level of care that meets the needs of the patients that we serve.