What term describes the duration for home health service certification?

• A. Inpatient admission
• B. Comprehensive assessment
• C. 60-day certification period
• D. Risk adjusted outcomes

Answer: (C)

The term describes a fixed time frame that Medicare uses to authorize and pay for home health services: a 60-day certification period. Once a patient begins home health care, the agency is certified to provide services for 60 days from the start of care, and the agency must obtain recertification for each subsequent 60-day period if the patient still meets eligibility. This isn’t about hospital admission timing, an initial OASIS assessment, or performance metrics—those relate to admission processes, data collection, or outcomes, not how long certification lasts.