Home Health & Hospice Week
MedPAC Lobbies For Lower Home Health Payment Rates
Advisory body pushes home health copayment once again.
Declining utilization and profit margins aren’t enough to keep an influential advisory body to Congress from proposing further cuts to Medicare home health agency rates.
In its Dec. 12, 2013 meeting, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission considered multiple HHA payment recommendations that would slash Medicare rates further in future years.
MedPAC staffer Evan Christman revealed a 14.4 percent HHA Medicare profit margin in 2012 and a projected margin of 12.6 percent in 2014. The number of users declined 0.2 percent from 2011 to 2012 at 3.4 million, and the number of episodes declined 1.5 percent to 6.7 million.
"This break in growth comes after several years of rapid increases," Christman said in the meeting. "Though volumes for this year show declines, keep in mind that since 2002, users have increased by over one-third, episodes have increased by more than 60 percent, and spending has almost doubled."
MedPAC plans to include recommendations for a "more robust form of rebasing that would address the historically high margins of home health agencies," Christman noted. Other recommendations repeated from previous years will include a home health copayment, elimination of therapy visits in case mix calculation, and fraud and abuse-related provisions.
MedPAC’s next meeting, where it will vote on final recommendations, is Jan. 15-17.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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