Biden Moves to Slash Medicare Payments for Home Health AgenciesSean Moran 1 Jul 2023
President Joe Biden’s administration moved to slash Medicare payments for home health agencies on Friday, a move opposed by both Republicans and Democrats.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would reduce Medicare payments by 2.2 percent, or $375 million in 2024. The proposed cut means that home health agencies would have to take a 5.1 decrease of $870 million based on the assumption that the agencies altered their billing and coding activity to “maximize reimbursements in 2020 and 2021.”
Bloomberg noted that home health agencies provide care for patients in the care and convenience of the client’s home, especially for America’s seniors. Seniors usually prefer home health agencies over nursing home care.
In 2021, traditional Medicare spent $16.9 billion for home health services on behalf of about three million beneficiaries, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported. Nearly 11,500 home health agencies participated in the Medicare program that year.
The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare said that the cuts would exceed $18 billion over the next ten years and comes at a time when the industry faces rising costs and a lack of skilled nurses and patients.
CMS has made these cuts assuming it had made $2.1 billion in alleged overpayments. However, the Partnership said that CMS is using a flawed methodology to assess past overpayments.
more
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/07/01/biden-moves-slash-medicare-payments-home-health-agencies/