Advanced Search

Home Health & Hospice Week

Budget:

MedPAC Tells Congress To Cut HHA Spending By $10 Billion

Published on Fri Feb 05, 2010

Home health agencies are getting no favors from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's March report to Congress. As agreed upon in its January meeting, MedPAC recommends that Congress eliminate the market basket inflation update for 2011 for home health agencies and rebase rates (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 4, p. 26). That would strip more than $10 billion from Medicare HHA spending over five years, the report says. MedPAC also wants prospective payment system changes to combat possible care stinting; outcome measures by patient category; and enhanced fraud-fighting measures such as moratoriums and prompt pay rule suspensions. And the Commission resurrects an old budget standby -- a home health visit copayment. On the hospice side: The number of hospice providers grew 47 percent from 2000 to 2008, mostly in the non-profit sector, MedPAC says in the report. The Commission recommends that Congress reduce hospice payments by a "productivity" adjustment in [...]
You’ve reached your limit of free articles. Already a subscriber? Log in.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe today to continue reading this article. Plus, you’ll get:
  • Simple explanations of current healthcare regulations and payer programs
  • Real-world reporting scenarios solved by our expert coders
  • Industry news, such as MAC and RAC activities, the OIG Work Plan, and CERT reports
  • Instant access to every article ever published in your eNewsletter
  • 6 annual AAPC-approved CEUs*
  • The latest updates for CPT®, ICD-10-CM, HCPCS Level II, NCCI edits, modifiers, compliance, technology, practice management, and more
*CEUs available with select eNewsletters.

Other Articles in this issue of

Home Health & Hospice Week

View All