OAR 410-142-0060: Certification of Terminal Illness

(1) In order to receive reimbursement from the Division of Medical Assistance Programs (Division), the hospice must obtain and retain a physician’s written certification of a client’s terminal illness in accordance with the following procedures. Division will not pay for services provided prior to certification. (2) The attending physician is a doctor of medicine or osteopathy or a nurse practitioner and is identified by the client at the time he or she elects to receive hospice care, as having the most significant role in the determination and delivery of the client’s medical care. A nurse practitioner serving as the attending physician may not certify or re-certify the terminal illness. (3) Certifications may be completed up to two weeks before hospice care is elected. (4) The certification of a client who elects hospice is based on the physician’s or medical director’s clinical judgment regarding the normal course of the client’s illness and must include: (a) The statement that the client’s medical prognosis indicates a life expectancy of six months or less if the terminal illness runs its normal course; and (b) Clinical information and other documentation which support the medical prognosis must accompany the certification and be filed in the medical record with the certification. (5) A written certification signed by the physician(s) must be on file in the hospice client’s record prior to submission of a claim to Division for all benefit periods. (6) For the initial period of hospice coverage, the hospice must obtain, no later than two calendar days after hospice care is initiated (that is, by the end of the third day), oral or written certification of the terminal illness by the medical director of the hospice or the physician member of the hospice interdisciplinary group and the client’s attending physician (if the client has an attending physician). If the written certification is not dated, a notarized statement or some other acceptable documentation may be obtained to verify the actual certification date. (7) For any subsequent periods, the hospice must obtain, no later than two calendar days after the first date of each period, a written certification from the medical director of the hospice or the physician member of the hospice’s interdisciplinary group. If the hospice cannot obtain written certification within two calendar days, it must obtain oral certification within two calendar days. (8) The requirements specified in this rule also apply to clients who had been previously discharged during a benefit period and are again being certified for hospice care.