Home Health & Hospice Week

A prospective payment system cutting across all post-acute providers has drawn major criticism from home care providers, but it’s moving forward anyway.

Home care has different, varying costs compared to institutional care and a PAC PPS is likely to underfund therapy patients, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice recently argued after the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended proceeding with the payment system (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 18).

Field testing in earlier phases already has occurred, and beta testing of IMPACT Act items in the cognitive status, mental status, medical conditions, impairments, care preferences, and medication reconciliation domains will begin in October 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a recent national provider call on the topic. Medicare will randomly select 210 PAC facilities, including 70 home health agencies, in 14 geographic areas, for testing, it said in a March 29 education call. It plans for five HHAs per market. See more information, including links to slides, a transcript, and a recording of the call, at www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/NPC/National-Provider-Calls-and-Events-Items/2017-03-29-Assessment.html.