MedPAC will recommend site-neutral payments, but not for strokes

Starting today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is giving home care providers breathing room as it waits for congressional action on the 2% Medicare sequester cuts.

CMS “instructed the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to hold all claims with dates of service on or after April 1, 2021, for a short period without affecting providers’ cash flow,” the agency said, noting that the action would minimize the volume of claims the MACs must process if Congress extends sequestration. The MACs will automatically reprocess any claims paid with the reduction applied if necessary.

The mandatory 2% cuts to Medicare payments were extended through the end of March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Last week, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that would extend the moratorium on the cuts until the end of the year. The House of Representatives, which also passed a measure extending the moratorium, is expected to take up the Senate-passed bill in a couple of weeks.

The added flexibility from the moratorium “has proven to be a lifeline to home health and hospice providers as they continue to face consequences brought on by the COVID-19 public health emergency,” William Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, said last Friday following the Senate’s passage of the moratorium extension.