Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare has proposed some End State Renal Disease Prospective Payment System changes that will encourage dialysis at home for Medicare beneficiaries.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing “that certain new and innovative equipment and supplies used for dialysis treatment of patients with ESRD in the home would qualify for an additional Medicare payment,” CMS says in a release about the 235-page rule scheduled for publication in the July 13 Federal Register.

“CMS data shows that those with ESRD have the highest rate of hospitalization of any single group, a trend consistent with having to frequently leave home to receive dialysis,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma says in the release. “In the midst of a deadly pandemic that poses a particular threat to those with serious underlying conditions, ... increased access to home dialysis has never been more urgent.” The change is “a sorely needed course direction, making it easier for ESRD facilities to make new and innovative home dialysis machines available to patients who need them,” Verma says.

More than 85 percent of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with ESRD travel to a facility to receive their dialysis at least three times per week. They spend, on average, 12 hours each week attached to a dialysis machine away from home, the release notes. “The ESRD population also has the highest hospitalization rates due to COVID-19 among Medicare beneficiaries, highlighting the importance that this population stay at home during the public health emergency to reduce risk of exposure to the virus,” CMS says.

The more details about the proposed changes in the rule at https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-14671.pdf and the fact sheet at www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/end-stage-renal-disease-esrd-prospective-payment-system-pps-calendar-year-cy-2021-proposed-rule-cms.