Home Health & Hospice Week

But MedPAC still recommends no pay increase next year.

Take a look at the statistics that policy- and lawmakers are using to make decisions about your Medicare reimbursement, as cited in the December and January Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meetings:

• Medicare spent $17.7 billion on 6.6 million episodes for 3.4 million beneficiaries in 2014.
• The number of episodes fell 2.1 percent in 2014, but increased 64 percent from 2002 to 2013.
• The number of agencies dropped 1.2 percent to 12,461 in 2014, but the number is still up 65 percent compared to 2004.
• The number of episodes per user was down 0.8 percent compared to 2013, but had increased 19 percent from 2002 to 2013.
• Medicare home health payments fell by 1.6 percent in 2014, but they increased 87 percent from 2002 to 2013.
• The volume drops were concentrated in five already high-volume states: Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois and Tennessee.