A new bill that would remove certain barriers to home-based care will soon be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Expanding Care in the Home Act (ECHA) would, among other things, create a personal care services benefit in Medicare to give aid to beneficiaries who are unable to afford out-of-pocket payments but don’t […]
Category: Medicare
A new report from the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services could be the first step in further expanding the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) model nationwide. Specifically, the committee believes that expanding PACE to more rural parts of the U.S. will help close gaps in long-term care. “[We] […]
Medicare fee-for-service rates are not where home health providers want them to be. That’s forced their hand when negotiating rates with other payer sources. “We are payer agnostic, but we’re payer selective,” Traditions Health CEO David Klementz said Thursday at Home Health Care News’ Capital + Strategy event in Washington, D.C. Traditions Health is a […]
Home health stakeholders often talk about the need to modernize the Medicare home health benefit. What they are often getting at is the need to make it easier for providers to deliver crucial care, while, in turn, creating better access to care. “We constantly need to be thinking about what’s ahead, how to improve this […]
Back in January, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) voted unanimously to recommend a 7% payment cut for home health agencies in 2024. The commission officially released its report to Congress on Wednesday. Broadly, the report covers Medicare payment policy, including the Medicare fee-for-service payment systems for home health care. Roughly 3 million Medicare fee-for-service […]
Participating in home-based cardiac rehabilitation — following a heart attack or cardiac procedure — can help lower the possibility of death resulting from heart-related complications. Specifically, home-based cardiac rehabilitation led to a 36% decrease in death within four years of participation. That’s according to new research published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart […]
In the new year, a number of states will expand their Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) efforts. PACE has been touted not only as a major opportunity for home-based care providers, but also a risk- and value-based program that actually works for seniors when done right. During the height of the pandemic, […]
Almost half of Medicare beneficiaries utilizing home health care services have five or more chronic conditions. This is also true when looking at Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries, according to data from the Research Institute for Home Care (RIHC). RIHC recently released its 2022 Home Care Chartbook, a detailed overview of the home health landscape that […]
Nearly five months after the unveiling of the proposed payment rule caused a stir among home health stakeholders and advocates, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final payment rule on Monday. Back in June, CMS proposed a 4.2% aggregate decrease for 2023, a cut the industry at large felt would […]
The idea of a unified post-acute care payment system has captured the imagination of home health industry stakeholders for years. One question that has always loomed large, however, was how one payment system could be applied to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), in-patient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) and, of course, home health providers. […]
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