- Improvement of a condition is not a requirement for Medicare coverage: “… Skilled care may be necessary to improve a patient’s current condition, to maintain the patient’s current condition, to prevent or slow further deterioration of the patient’s condition.”
Medicare Home Health Benefit Policy Manual, Ch. 7, Section 20.1.2 (emphasis added) - “A patient’s overall medical condition, without regard to whether the illness or injury is acute, chronic, terminal, or expected to extend over a long period of time, should be considered in deciding whether skilled services are needed. A patient’s diagnosis should never be the sole factor in deciding that a service the patient needs is either skilled or not skilled. Skilled care may, depending on the unique condition of the patient, continue to be necessary for patients whose condition is stable.”
Medicare Home Health Benefit Policy Manual, Ch. 7, Section 40.1.1
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