Home Health & Hospice Week

New legislation could save agencies from a $1.33 billion cut — for now.

Home health agencies are still reeling from Medicare’s proposal to reduce their payment rates by 7.69 percent based on a behavioral assumption adjustment — and now they are fighting back.

At the urging of HHAs and their represen­tatives, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced The Preserving Access to Home Health Act of 2022 (S. 4605), which would delay any Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services cuts to home health payment rates until 2026. “A House version of the same bill is expected soon,” says National Association for Home Care & Hospice Director of Government Affairs Calvin McDaniel in the trade group’s member listserv.

The bill would change the 4.2 percent pay cut for 2023 into a 3.49 percent increase by postponing the -7.69 percent reduction. It “would also block additional cuts of more than $2 billion as soon as 2024 due to an unjustified ‘clawback’ of payments for critical home healthcare services delivered to seniors and people with disabilities during the pandemic,” NAHC and The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare say in a release about the bill. “Estimates show Medicare’s proposed cuts will total $18 billion to providers over the next 10 years,” the release warns.

“The 7.69 percent reduction laid out in the recent CMS proposed rule, totaling $1.33 billion in 2023 alone, could set home health care access back a decade or more,” warns Katie Smith Sloan, head of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit providers of aging services including home health. “This bill wisely pushes off cuts that would protect vital home health services for vulnerable and underserved populations, and gives CMS more time to reconsider the devastating impacts of their proposed rule,” Smith Sloan says in a release.

“Home health providers are facing enormous pressures today, including historically high costs of delivering quality home healthcare, so these severe and unjust cuts could not come at a worse time,” says Partnership CEO Joanne Cunningham.

The senators’ “support in this new battle with Medicare will help ensure that home health agencies can continue to deliver high quality care that is accessible throughout the country,” says NAHC President William Dombi in NAHC’s release. “This is a battle for the future of health care at home,” Dombi adds. The bill “will provide essential protection from the devastating rate cut proposed by CMS,” he praises.

“We urge Congress to pass this legislation and give nonprofit and mission-driven providers the support they need to continue their vital work caring for our older Americans with dignity and respect,” Smith Sloan says.

The bill’s delay would add “more time for CMS to refine its proposed approach to determining budget neutrality in home health,” NAHC and The Partnership explain.

Note: More bill details are at www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4605.