Home Health & Hospice Week

Home Health Value-Based Purchasing is far down the tracks toward implementation, but a fifth-year review of the pilot program may still prove illuminating.

For example: A “cumulative decline … in total Medicare spending during and within 30 days following home health episodes for FFS beneficiaries receiving home health care in the model was $949.2 million” over five years, note report authors Arbor Research and L&M Policy Research.

The authors brush off the finding that “for the three composite [CAHPS] measures that rate professionalism, communication, and discussion of care by the agencies, we found that HHVBP was associated with a -0.2 to -0.4 percentage point relative decline,” according to the report. “This does not translate to an especially meaningful impact of HHVBP on these aspects of patient experience with care, given the high overall levels of performance on these measures (i.e., ranging from 82 percent to 89 percent),” maintains the 169-page report at https://innovation.cms.gov/data-and-reports/2022/hhvbp-fifthann-rpt.