Guides & Resources

Home Health Operations Guides

Practical, accurate references for the rules and workflows that decide home health revenue - NOA deadlines, LUPA thresholds, OASIS-E1 documentation, PDGM payment mechanics, and denial prevention.

NOA Guide

8 min read

The Home Health NOA Deadline: What Agencies Need to Know

Since January 1, 2022, Medicare-certified home health agencies must submit a one-time Notice of Admission (NOA) within five calendar days of the start-of-care date. Miss the deadline and your agency loses payment for every late day. This guide covers how the NOA works, what late submission actually costs, and how agencies keep every admission on time.

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LUPA Guide

7 min read

LUPA Thresholds Explained: How Home Health Agencies Prevent Avoidable LUPA Losses

Under PDGM, a Low Utilization Payment Adjustment (LUPA) converts a 30-day period from a full episodic payment to a handful of per-visit payments - often cutting revenue for the period by 70% or more. Every 30-day period has its own LUPA threshold between 2 and 6 visits. This guide explains how thresholds work and how agencies prevent the avoidable ones.

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OASIS Guide

9 min read

OASIS-E1 Documentation: A Practical Guide for Home Health Agencies

OASIS-E1 became effective January 1, 2025, and it drives nearly everything that matters in home health: PDGM case-mix payment, LUPA thresholds, Star Ratings, and value-based purchasing scores. This guide covers what changed, which items carry the most weight, and how agencies reduce the documentation errors that cost real money.

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PDGM Guide

8 min read

PDGM Explained: How Medicare Pays Home Health Agencies

The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) has governed Medicare home health payment since January 1, 2020. It replaced therapy-driven payment with a clinically driven model built on 30-day periods and 432 case-mix groups. Understanding exactly how PDGM assigns payment is the foundation of protecting revenue.

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Denials Guide

8 min read

How to Reduce Home Health Claim Denials Before They Happen

Every denied home health claim costs twice: the delayed or lost revenue, and the staff hours spent working the appeal. The highest-ROI denial strategy is prevention - catching the documentation and billing defects that cause denials before the claim ever leaves the building.

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Buyer's Guide

9 min read

How to Choose a Home Health EMR: A Buyer's Guide for Agency Owners

The EMR is the operating system of a home health agency - it determines how fast referrals become admissions, how long clinicians chart, whether NOAs and claims go out clean, and how survey-ready your charts are. This guide gives agency owners a practical framework for evaluating options.

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