The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare issues, recently voted in favor of recommendations to reduce the 2021 Medicare base payment rates for hospice and home health agencies. The driving motivation for their decision was the belief that COVID-19 will not financially harm such agencies in the long term.
Two longtime Centers for Medicare and Medicaid staffers — Liz Richter and Jeff Wu — will temporarily lead CMS under the Biden administration, according to a staff email from former CMS Administrator Seema Verma, and obtained by the Politico news organization.
The Department of Health and Human Services made a key announcement regarding home care on Friday: It approved the expansion of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model, which began its first performance year in 2016.
Although the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill recently signed into law contains positive provisions for the home care and hospice segments, much more needs to be done to ensure that providers can continue operating during the pandemic and beyond, the National Association of Home Care & Hospice said in a recent analysis.
In an open letter Tuesday congratulating members of the 117th Congress on the start of “a new and challenging legislative year,” Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of Leading Age and acting president and CEO of VNAA/Elevating HOME, urged Congress to support senior care services.
Medicare Advantage outperforms traditional Medicare when it comes to pneumonia and flu vaccines, diabetic eye exams, post-acute care and avoidable hospitalizations — all of which enable older adults to live longer at home.
Home care providers are pushing lawmakers to pass current legislation that would postpone scheduled cuts to home-based primary care.
The 5% cut to home health pay recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission does not consider all the costs of care operation and does not include home health agencies that are integrated into health systems, according to William Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services formally announced Tuesday afternoon that it has finalized its calendar 2021 physician pay rule, which cuts physical and occupational therapy payments for nursing homes patients by 9%.
A Texas physician has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $9.5 million in restitution for her role in a multi-million Medicare fraud scheme, according to the Department of Justice.
