President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Thursday designed to bolster and expand Medicare Advantage (MA), the private Medicare insurance program for seniors that currently covers roughly 22 million individuals. While the executive order is relatively wide-ranging in scope, one major detail should immediately win the attention of home health providers. In the order, […]
CMS
For most home health providers in the U.S., adapting to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) remains priority No. 1 for the rest of 2019. That’s certainly true for Birmingham, Alabama-based Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC), though the national operator of both in-patient rehabilitation hospitals (IRFs) and home health agencies is also actively looking to improve […]
CAPABLE — the innovative program developed out of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing that combines nursing care, occupational therapy and handyman services — is on the verge of “exponential growth” and one step closer to becoming Medicare-reimbursable. It’s also another example of how complex and comprehensive in-home care is becoming. Since its first pilot […]
When it comes to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and the impact the overhaul will have on the home health industry in 2020, outlook largely varies depending on who you talk to. On one hand, some industry insiders have told Home Health Care News that PDGM — mandated to be budget neutral by Congress — […]
The Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) is expanding. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday that home health providers in Ohio will be next in line for RCD, a revived version of the failed Pre-Claim Review Demonstration (PCRD) meant to combat improper billing. Home health providers in Illinois — the only state with […]
In a new report released Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) highlighted dozens of its unimplemented recommendations for reducing fraud, waste and abuse throughout the Medicare and Medicaid systems. Many of the recommendations were tied to home health, hospice and personal care services, in addition to how […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is finding new ways to penalize home health providers. In its proposed payment rule for 2020 released last week, CMS floated the idea of phasing out pre-payments for home health services starting in 2020, killing them completely by the following year. Currently, home health providers can receive […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is moving forward with many of the provisions originally included in the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) while also proposing to implement a new home infusion benefit, eliminate home health pre-payments and make Value-Based Purchasing Model (VBPM) performance data public. CMS detailed its plan for PDGM and other […]
A key ally for home health providers and a major proponent of value-based care may be leaving his federal post. The Trump administration revealed late Wednesday it has nominated Adam Boehler — director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and a senior adviser to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health […]
The flood of home health support from Congress on the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) front continues. On July 2, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers sent a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, urging the agency’s leader to revisit certain widely opposed provisions of PDGM during CMS’s annual rulemaking […]