Home Health & Hospice Week

These health reform law-required coalitions could change how you furnish care forever. Home health agencies may be mentioned only twice in the massive 429-page proposed rule on Accountable Care Organizations, but that doesn't mean you can ignore the regulation and the impact it may have on you. Background: Last year's Affordable Care Act health reform law requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to set up a "Shared Savings Program" to coordinate care among multiple providers -- particularly hospitals and physicians -- for fee-for-service beneficiaries. Accountable Care Organizations, consisting of hospitals, physicians, and other providers, will share in program savings for their designated group of benes. A proposed rule CMS released March 31 specifies that ACOs would have to take on at least 5,000 benes for a three-year period starting as early as Jan. 1, 2012. The rule takes aim mainly at fragmented hospital and physician care. "More than half of [...]