The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have issued a proposed rule for home health that contains the first refinements to the Medicare home health prospective payment system since 2000 and also contains the annual update to the Medicare home health PPS payment rates of 2.9%. CMS estimates that the refinements and updates in the proposed rule will generate an additional $140 million in payments to home health agencies in CY 2008.
The proposed rule includes a provision to continue to adjust payment for reporting of quality data. If a home health agency does not submit quality data, the 2.9% update would be reduced by 2%, leaving that agency with a 0.9% update. The rule also has a reduction to the 60-day episode payment rate of 2.75 percent per year for three years beginning in CY 2008 to account for what CMS considers to be case-mix increase due to changes in coding practices and documentation (rather than treatment of more resource-intensive patients).
Read the CMS fact sheet comparing the 2008 proposed changes with the current system. Download the proposed rule (311 pages).
