Q&A: Physician-to-Physician Transfers

Q: We do physician-to-physician with transfers to acute care, but not to skilled nursing facilities and rehab facilities. Is this now a requirement under the proposed changes to the Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for discharge planning?

A: It's not mentioned as a requirement in the discharge planning CoPs. But, in the view of continuity of care and safe transition of care, ensuring that the next provider can start the care. It is necessary to communicate to the next medical person who's going to be taking care of the patient. It could be a doctor. It could be a non-physician practitioner. We believe that that would have an impact on readmissions if the person responsible for the care at the next level has a history of what happened to the patient in the current setting. So the medical information does need to be shared with whoever is going to be the medical provider in the postacute setting.

For patients being referred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) from an acute care facility, it has to be physician-to-physician. The IRF physician must accept the referral. That was implemented maybe a year or more ago so that the benefit of the IRF for the individual patient would be clarified before they accepted the patient.

This question was adapted from the HCPro webcast "Discharge Planning: Realignment of Standards and Workflow" featuring Jackie Birmingham, RN, BSN, MS, CMAC, and Janet L. Blondo, MSW, LCSW-C, LICSW, CMAC, ACM, CCM, C-ASWCM, ACSW.

Need expert advice? Email your questions for consideration in the Revenue Cycle Daily Advisor. Note: We do not guarantee that all questions will be answered.