Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) is drawing early positives from its deployment of predictive analytics technology. In fact, it’s so bullish on early returns that the Birmingham, Alabama-based company plans to ramp up deployment and usage across the majority of home health locations in 2020. Apart from tech tools, Encompass Health also foresees plenty of […]
Category: Regulation
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) continues to dominate the conversation among in-home care providers, though some still see staffing as the industry’s top challenge. In terms of growth avenues, the majority of providers view private-duty home care as the best upcoming opportunity to scale their business in 2020. Even with PDGM, many remain bullish on […]
Therapy layoffs, conversions to part-time status and general service reductions are beginning to ramp up in the home health space, multiple professional association groups told Home Health Care News. So much so, in fact, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may be preparing to speak up. The current shift in how and […]
Birmingham, Alabama-based Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) — already one of the largest home health providers in the country — is likely on its way to even more growth this year, thanks partly to the expected M&A opportunities linked to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Internally, coding changes and investments in predictive analytics have helped […]
Immediately following the Oct. 1 rollout of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), news broke about widespread therapy staff layoffs throughout the skilled nursing industry. The layoffs have continued — at a staggering pace — in the months since. While PDPM is inherently different than the home health industry’s upcoming Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the reimbursement […]
No shockers here: The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) was the big story in 2019. The most widely read Home Health Care News story from the past year was a PDGM-focused conversation between the leaders of Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) and Encompass Health’s (NYSE: EHC) home health division. Now just days […]
Home health industry insiders throughout 2019 have frequently speculated on the “carnage” likely to take place next year when the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) pushes smaller, ill-equipped agencies out of business. Generally, the narrative goes something like this: As the biggest overhaul to home health reimbursement in two decades, PDGM will significantly disrupt agency cash […]
By eliminating visit-volume thresholds and tying reimbursement more closely to need, the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) will likely steer the home health care industry away from therapy and toward nursing. Although PDGM officially starts on Jan. 1, home health providers have already begun to shift their therapy utilization strategies to better line up with the […]
The Medicare fee-for-service improper payment rate has fallen once again, thanks largely to the cleaner paperwork and ongoing compliance efforts of U.S. home health providers. Despite clear and steady progress in bringing improper payment rates down, though, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is unlikely to relax its oversight anytime soon, industry leaders […]
With a focus on institutional referrals and changes to therapy reimbursement, the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) is going to rock the Medicare-certified home health world in 2020. But private-pay and non-medical home care agencies may also see bottom-line impacts tied to PDGM. Specifically, PDGM will likely create new opportunities for home care agencies looking to […]