Baltimore

The Health Care Financing Administration has revised its definition of homebound. Previously, HCFA defined a patient as homebound if absences from the home are infrequent or of relatively short duration, or are attributable to the need to receive medical treatment.

With HCFA's revision, leaving home to receive medical treatment now includes going to adult day care so long as the patient receives therapeutic, psychosocial or medical treatment from a licensed or state-certified adult day-care facility. HCFA also stated that any absence for a religious service is considered an absence of short duration and doesn't negate a beneficiary's homebound status.

The complete revision can be found at http://www.hcfa.gov/pubforms/transmit/memos/impl%5Fdate%5Fdsc.htm; scroll down to file A-01-21.