CMS announces payment changes for Medicare home health agencies for 2016

(Source – CMS.gov, 10/29/2015)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced changes to the Medicare home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) for calendar year (CY) 2016 that will foster greater efficiency, payment accuracy, and improved quality of care. Approximately 3.5 million beneficiaries received home health services from 11,900 HHAs, costing Medicare $17.9 billion in 2014.

CMS projects that Medicare payments to home health agencies (HHAs) in CY 2016 will be reduced by 1.4 percent, or $260 million. This decrease reflects the effects of the 1.9 percent home health payment update percentage ($345 million increase); a 0.9 percent decrease in payments due to the 0.97 percent payment reduction to the national, standardized 60-day episode payment rate to account for nominal case-mix growth from 2012 through 2014 ($165 million decrease); and a 2.4 percent decrease in payments due to the third year of the four-year phase-in of the rebasing adjustments to the national, standardized 60-day episode payment rate, the national per-visit payment rates, and the non-routine medical supplies (NRS) conversion factor ($440 million decrease).  Compared to the proposed rule, the maximum payment reduction in the first year of the value-based purchasing program was reduced from 5 percent to 3 percent.   Read more…

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