In a previous blog post I wrote about how you can access home health quality ratings on Medicare’s website to make sure that you pick the best agency for your needs(click here to read). This question begs the answer, “How does Medicare rate these agencies”?

After about two to three weeks of home health service our patients receive an unmarked letter containing a home health survey. This survey asks questions about the patient’s home health agency. Patients fill out the survey and then send those surveys back to a third party vendor who collects the data and delivers it to Medicare. Using the third party vendor to coordinate these surveys ensures that the data given to Medicare is accurate and hasn’t been tainted by the agency delivering the service.

That’s how it’s done. So, if you or a family member has home health please remember to fill out and send in your survey’s. This is valuable information that other patient’s like yourself can use to pick the right home health agency for them. Click here to search for a home health agency.

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