Home Health & Hospice Week

One of the most important tenets of a viable payment reform model is that it be budget-neutral.  The Home Health Groupings Model will strip nearly $1 billion from Medicare home health spending in 2019 alone, and that estimate is way low according to many industry experts.

“It is our understanding that the [Health & Human Services] Secretary is required by law to implement any changes in a payment model as budget neutral,” said the Texas Association for Home Care & Hospice in its comment letter. “A non-budget neutral policy, such as HHGM, poses serious risks to Medicare patients, home health agencies, and Medicare itself after numerous years of payment disruptions to the field that have yet to stabilize the delivery of care,” TAHC warned CMS.

Home health agencies have already been suffering under severe budget conditions, many commenters agreed. “The Medicare home health sector has experienced more rate cuts over the last decade than any other healthcare sector in the Medicare program and is the only provider type that has not had an increase in Medicare reimbursements since 2009,” said Adam Nielsen, CEO of Jackson, Michiganbased Great Lakes Caring Home Health & Hospice.

“No other setting in healthcare seems to get the constant rate cuts, yet [is] expected to provide more care for less pay than home health,” fumed the director of therapy services at Three Rivers Home Health in Eastman, Georgia. “Furthermore, the ‘red tape’ that CMS continues to require for home health agencies just affects the patients. We can barely do our jobs treating patients.”