Home Health & Hospice Week

Home health agencies shouldn’t expect a quick fix to reimbursement rates from NAHC’s PDGM lawsuit.

A Washington, D.C. federal court ruling issued on April 26 dismisses the case filed by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice last summer “on the procedural grounds that NAHC had not exhausted the administrative appeal rights available to health care providers,” the trade group reports. “The Court ruling delays consideration of the merits of NAHC’s challenge to the CMS budget neutrality methodology rather than stopping that challenge overall,” it notes.

The suit argues the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services hasn’t implemented the Patient-Driven Groupings Model in a budget-neutral manner as required (see more details in HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 26).

“We are disappointed with the court’s ruling. However, it is a minor setback that we can readily overcome,” NAHC President William Dombi says in a statement. “We will have our day in court. This battle is far from over.”