Volume 22.04
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (“NAHC”) needs the industry to be vocal regarding the CY 2023 Medicare home health services Proposed Rule, which includes 2023 payment rates and a variety of other changes.
NAHC has submitted comments on the proposed rule which include:
- More than 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries have lost access to home health services in recent years, with over 1,000 HHAs having closed, and Medicare spending in 2020-2021 at its lowest point since 2010.
- Congress required that CMS institute a budget neutral payment model in 2020. That model underpaid home health agencies by 2.5 to 3.2 percent in contrast to the 6.9 percent overpayment alleged by CMS.
- CMS’s evaluation as to whether the new payment model was “budget neutral” is fatally flawed in its methodological approach and is inconsistent with comparable evaluations that CMS applied in other sectors.
- CMS’s evaluation methodology is at odds with the clear mandates established by Congress in 2018 in all respects.
- CMS compounds the risks to patient care by adding new, unnecessary costs while failing to adequately recognize the significant labor and transportation cost inflation that has hit home health services.
- CMS is pulling resources from home health care at a time it is depending on that care to reduce Medicare spending on hospitalizations and other care.
You can go to Ask Congress to Prevent Home Health Cuts that Will Devastate Access to Care. Support S.4605/H. R. 8581 (p2a.co) to show your support for the Preserving Access to Home Health Care Act and help to avoid home health payment cuts. NAHC has also scheduled September 14, 2022 for a Capitol Hill Day of Advocacy. You can register for this event at NAHC Advocacy Day • RSVPify.
The proposed payment rate cut of 7.69 percent will place many home health agencies at financial risk.
REGISTRATION AVAILABLE FOR NAHC HOME CARE AND HOSPICE CONFERENCE AND EXPO
The Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo is scheduled for October 23-25, 2022, in St. Louis. The Health Group, LLC will be attending and exhibiting at this event. Information, including registration is available here.