Home Health & Hospice Week

Prospective Payment System:

PPS FLEXIBILITY COULD BACKFIRE ON HHAs

High exec salaries add fuel to HHA payment cut fire. Exorbitant executive salaries under the prospective payment system could threaten to sabotage the home care industry's legislative efforts this year. When cost-based reimbursement went out and the prospective payment system came in in 2000,home care executives were thankful they wouldn't have to waste time and resources documenting and defending every line item in their cost reports anymore. But that freedom could end up coming at a steep price for the industry. Home health agencies have been garnering negative attention from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and others about their high average profit margins. MedPAC figures the margin at 11 percent this year. And now national attention has focused on high HHA executive salaries, thanks to a profile in the April 12 Parade Magazine's "What People Earn" issue. Jimmy Jamie, the 26-year-old CEO of HHA chain Golden Heart inWest Virginia, Ohio, [...]
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