Medicare Advantage (MA) only became a real opportunity for home care providers five years ago. That is when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced primarily health-related benefits, allowing for agencies to step in and provide personal care for beneficiaries on a limited basis. Since then, MA plans have continued to expand these […]
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) is finally coming to an end, the Biden administration announced Monday. Its final day will be May 11. It — and the special home health regulatory flexibilities that have come with it — will have been active by over three years at that point, dating back to January 2020. […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule Monday that takes aim at overpayments and accountability within Medicare Advantage (MA). Specifically, the rule promises to provide further oversight over MA plans and to recoup any overpayments. CMS plans to do so through the Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) final rule, which […]
Despite the hope that COVID-19’s effect on the world would wane in 2022, the year started with the highest case counts that home health and home care providers had seen, both among patients and staff. But as Home Health Care News’ top stories of the year suggest, COVID-19 did not define what went on in […]
Care Compare – the all-in-one search tool for consumers seeking home health, hospice and other Medicare-reimbursed health care services – will now include new information on providers’ relationships with doctors and clinicians. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the update on Monday. According to CMS, the new update is meant to […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its FY 2023 home health final payment rule late Monday. It comes with an estimated increase to 2023 home health payments of 0.7%, or $125 million, compared to 2022 aggregate payments. Although it sets up certain financial challenges moving forward, the final rule is better […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday released a request for information regarding the creation of a “national directory of health care providers and services.” The effort – a major undertaking – could eventually lead to a new database that better connects home health agencies to patients, payers and other stakeholders. Specifically, […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its first ever home- and community-based services (HCBS) quality measures Thursday. The agency said the measures will promote “consistent quality measurement within and across state Medicaid HCBS programs” and are a “critical step to promoting health equity among the millions of older adults and people with […]
At the very beginning of this year, I wrote an HHCN+ Report on the home health public market and how it sets the pace for the rest of the industry. At the time, the public companies were all doing well, though things have certainly changed since then. Among my takeaways, I wrote about how larger […]
The former U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, Seema Verma, did not paint a rosy outlook for the home health industry this week in Chicago. In fact, hardly any of what she said evoked optimism among operators in the crowd. In regards to the economy, she said it would be her guess […]