Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

CMS action awaited to even the playing field for HHAs. Home health agencies are keeping their fingers crossed that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will heed their pleas this year and correct the inequities of the current wage index system. The problem: Home health agencies have to rely on the hospital-based wage index, but are not eligible for the reclassification exceptions that hospitals are.Problems under that system include "the labor market distortions created by reclassification of hospitals in areas in which home health labor costs are not reclassified" and "the unpredictable year-to-year swings in wage index values that are often based on inaccurate or incomplete hospital cost reports," notes Nicole Fedeli-Turiano, legislative affairs director for Home Nursing Agency in Altoona, Pa., in her agency's comment letter on the 2013 home health prospective payment system proposed rule.The inequities in the system have "for many years created a competitive advantage [...]