Characteristically Medicare and other non-HMO payors have been reluctant to pay for many preventive services, declining to pay for treating a problem that has not yet occurred. While this position has softened somewhat in recent years, with such things as screening mammograms and blood tests often being covered, albeit on a limited basis, a strictly preventive program for Medicare beneficiaries is not yet reimbursable.

However, no one denies that falls and injuries sustained in the home setting are costly and debilitating, and that it is much more expensive to treat fractures and other injuries after an accident has occurred than to prevent the accident in the first place. So, the task becomes to take our thinking about fall and injury prevention one step further, by enumerating the reasons or diagnoses extant in our patients which give rise to our concern about their potential for accidents at home. That is, as a clinician, why am I concerned that a particular patient of mine might fall or sustain an injury at home?

Apple Home Healthcare is pleased to provide a simple tool to assist you in noting these underlying conditions, each of which is an existing health condition which can be treated and covered by Medicare and other payors, and all of which, individually or in various combinations, can be significant contributors to fall and injury risk. Simply note your patient's name and birthdate at the top of the page, check or write in any diagnoses pertinent to him or her, sign and date the bottom, and send this tool together with the patient's demographics to Apple Home Healthcare. Our highly skilled and experienced interdisciplinary team will visit your patient, complete a comprehensive assessment, apprise you of the findings, and follow up as needed to minimize your patient's risk for falls and injuries and to improve your patient's overall safety at home.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve your patient. We look forward to working with you!

 

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