Failure to Provide Bed-Hold Notice and Permit Resident Return After Hospitalization
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to permit a resident to return after hospitalization and to provide required transfer/discharge and bed-hold notices. The resident, who had multiple complex diagnoses including nontraumatic intracerebral hemorrhage, atherosclerotic heart disease, hypertension, dysphagia, cognitive communication deficit, muscle weakness, gait abnormalities, and severe cognitive impairment (BIMS score of two), was admitted to the facility in early January. A Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage (NOMNC) was issued by social services via telephone to the resident’s responsible party, advising that Medicare coverage would end and that financial liability would begin on a specified date, and informing them of appeal rights. The resident was then transferred to the hospital for elevated heart rate and admitted for observation and treatment. The transfer documentation reflected only clinical and communication information sent to the hospital and did not show that a written notice of transfer or discharge was provided to the resident or representative at the time of transfer. The resident’s record showed that the resident was discharged from the facility and removed from the census on the same day as the hospital transfer. A subsequent BFCC-QIO determination letter documented that the resident lost the appeal of the NOMNC and no longer met Medicare coverage requirements for SNF services, and that the resident or representative was notified by telephone of the decision and of financial responsibility for continued services after Medicare coverage ended. However, there was no documentation in the medical record that the resident or representative was offered the option to return or remain at the facility on a private-pay basis or informed of the cost of services once Medicare coverage ended. The Administrator confirmed that no bed-hold notice was provided, no option to hold the bed was offered when the resident went to the hospital, the bed was not held during the hospitalization, and that by the time the resident was ready to return, the bed had been given to another resident and no bed was available for readmission.
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