As home health and home care operators move toward the ninth month of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to take stock of what has been accomplished from a policy perspective. Many of 2020’s regulatory changes will be fleeting, but others will shape the future of post-acute care for years to come. That was the message […]
Now that the dust has settled on the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), some have returned their attention toward the idea of another major reimbursement overhaul: a unified post-acute payment system. There had been mounting momentum behind a unified payment model for post-acute care providers headed into 2020. The ongoing COVID-19 emergency has derailed a lot […]
Home health is often utilized as a recovery tool when patients transition out of the hospital because of its ability to improve outcomes. But many of the Medicare beneficiaries who receive referrals after being discharged aren’t actually receiving these services. Overall, the past several decades have seen an increase in the use of post-acute services, […]
Among its many impacts, the COVID-19 emergency signaled the decentralization of health care and the disruption of M&A activity. When it comes to post-acute care, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and other institutional care settings additionally saw patients migrate into the home in order to avoid the spread of the virus. Amedisys CEO and President Paul […]
Home health providers that have been waiting for the Medicare advance and accelerated loan repayment process to begin will have to wait a little bit longer. While the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has yet to release an official statement, Administrator Seema Verma has confirmed the agency will hold off on the […]
In an effort to ease the cash flow challenges associated with the COVID-19 emergency, many home health providers took on advance and accelerated payment loans from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Now, the time has come for the recoupment process to begin. But CMS has been quiet on the matter, creating […]
Nine months after initially floating the idea, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched Care Compare, a consumer-facing database of provider quality information. The agency announced the launch on Thursday. CMS originally announced its plan to merge Home Health Compare with the seven other Compare sites in January. Agency officials said […]
Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will not immediately pursue a full-blown restart of the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD), a regulatory initiative designed to reduce improper billing in home health care. Instead, CMS outlined how it will move forward with a “phased-in approach” to RCD that gives […]
Hoping to create new revenue streams, home health agencies are more frequently turning to Medicare Part B. In fact, some agencies are finding that delivering services under Part B is a natural progression for them. In the case of First Choice Home Health and Hospice, deciding to offer Medicare Part B services was a case […]
Spending on home health care services is down substantially under the Patient-Driven Grouping Model (PDGM), a recently unveiled analysis suggests. While the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 requires PDGM to be budget neutral, spending on home health care has actually been about 21.6% lower than projected, according to a detailed analysis from Dobson DaVanzo & […]