Home Health & Hospice Week

The influential advisory body blasts agency profit margins in its latest recommendations. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has dealt a serious blow to home health agencies hoping to fend off major Medicare payment cuts next year. In its Jan. 8 meeting, the influential advisory body to Congress approved three recommendations that will likely result in cuts of at least 10 percent to Medicare payment rates over the next few years. In a set of three recommendations MedPAC will include in its March report to Congress, the commission pushes: 1) Eliminating the inflation update for 2010 and moving up the last year of cuts for supposed case mix creep. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services already has a 2.75 percent cut slated for next year due to the case mix creep issue, but MedPAC wants 2011's scheduled 2.71 percent cut added to it, which would result in a nearly 5.5 [...]