The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Nov. 22 issued a final rule that would reduce home health payments by 1.05% (-$200 million) in calendar year 2014, less than the proposed 1.5% reduction. Hospital-based agencies would face a smaller reduction of 0.58%.
The total reduction reflects a 2.3% market basket increase, minus 2.73% (-3.4% proposed) for 2014 rebasing adjustments, and minus 0.62% due to the effects of HH prospective payment system Grouper refinements. The rule implements the first stage of the four-year rebasing of the HH PPS required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to adjust for changes in the mix, intensity and cost of services since the HH PPS was implemented in 2000.
CMS also issued a final rule on Medicare payments to end-stage renal disease facilities for CY 2014 that will maintain overall Medicare payments to ESRD facilities at their current levels, an improvement over the proposed reduction of 9.3%. Hospital-based facilities will see a 0.8% payment increase.
The improvement in payments is due to the fact that CMS is implementing a three- to four-year transition of the drug utilization adjustment that was required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The rules will be published in the Dec. 2 Federal Register and will be effective on Jan. 1.
Comments