All you have to know about transitional care management


Do you know that patients can relapse and be readmitted if they don’t get adequate levels of aftercare services? This is true and it has happened to many patients. Patients need intense aftercare services to help them recover fully.

Transitional care management is designed for doctors, nonqualifying medical practitioners, and specialist for the care they give patients who have been discharged from health facilities. Transitional care management is a situation where a doctor takes care of the patient from the time they are discharged from the hospital. The care is typically designed to last for 30 days. Medical practitioners such as doctors visit the patients and in some cases, the doctor calls the patient to ask him about his current status. Transitional care management helps to reduce chances of relapsing and reduce costs of healthcare delivery.

Patient and provider qualifications

Before the doctor and the patient to get involved in transitional care management, they need to have some qualifications.

The provider qualifications

You should know that there are only certain categories of medical practitioners who are eligible to provide transitional care management services. The qualified medical practitioners include certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physicians of any specialty and physician’s assistants.

There are some providers who are not physicians that may qualify to provide this service. The healthcare service provider is required to make contact with the patient within 48 hours after discharge. You must use an appropriately certified EHR application or electronic health records for you to qualify for reimbursements. If you don’t have EHR, then you cannot get additional revenue that comes through transitional care management.

Having EHR comes with several advantages whereby you can take advantage of CMS initiatives such as comprehensive care management, TCM, and patient-centered medical home.

Patient requirements

The patient must meet some important requirements for them to be involved in transitional care management. The patients must be discharged from a qualifying service setting such as an inpatient acute care hospital, skilled nursing facility, hospital outpatient observation, long-term care hospital, inpatient psychiatric hospital and partial hospitalization.

Billing requirements for TCM

Doctors, nurses and healthcare practitioners usually get reimbursed for transitional care management services and for them to be reimbursed, they should have the following billing requirements.
    They should get and review the information of the discharged patient.
    They should review any requirements for treatments and tests and do the required follow up/
    They should arrange and educate the patient’s relative, beneficiary, and primary caregiver.
    The organization for the practitioner should establish ties with the local community services and providers.
    They should schedule follow-up visits with various providers and services.
    The service providers must provide face to face visits within one to two weeks and this depends on the complexity of the situation of the patient.
    The practitioner should furnish the management and medicine reconciliation by the date they should do the face to face visit which is mandatory.

Transitional care management is beneficial for both participating parties and DocChargeCompany is still working towards improving the service further. The company seeks to simplify the work of physicians and help them deliver their best.


DocCharge Web http://doccharge.com/

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