Home Health & Hospice Week

5 HHAs named in demonstration project addressing medical adult day care.

Starting this summer, the government will be assessing whether to allow home health agencies to furnish services to patients attending adult day care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced that in June it will launch the Medical Adult Day Care Services Demonstration. Under the demo, five selected HHAs will be paid 95 percent of the usual prospective payment system amount for serving patients in a certified medical adult day care facility.

Up to 15,000 beneficiaries can participate in the demo at a time. "This demonstration will allow Medi-care to assess whether providing medical adult day care services as part of the home health benefit will improve patient outcomes and increase patient satisfaction," CMS Administrator Mark McClellan says in a release. The participating agencies are:|

• Aurora Visiting Nurse Association in Milwaukee,
• Doctor's Care Home Health in McAllen, TX,
• Landmark Home Health Care Services in Allison Park, PA,
• Metropolitan Jewish Health System in Brooklyn, NY, and
• Neighborly Care Network in St. Petersburg, FL. The agencies are affiliated, through ownership or contractual agreement, with one or more adult day care facilities, CMS notes. A report, including an analysis of the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of the demonstration, will go to Congress after the project wraps up.