Home Heath

A referral is sent over from our hospital from case management but the MD is not contacted by case management to confirm they will sign.  Our current process is that our intake department will immediately call the MD to confirm they will sign and if not try and find another signing MD.  If we do not have an MD to sign when we receive the referral, is that considered a complete referral and does the 48 hours count?  Or does the 48 hours not start until we have a complete referral and there is a verified MD that will sign the orders?  We have received a referral from a hospital and not gotten confirmation until 4 days later that an MD will sign.  We are outside of the 48 hour compliance window.  However, we did not make a visit because we did not have MD confirmation.

Can anyone share their process? thank you