Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus:  Home health spending increase spell more bad news for HHAs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may finally be catching on to the benefits of disease management. More than 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries are participating in Medicare Health Support, the demonstration project offering DM to chronically ill patients.

Eight programs in eight states and the District of Columbia offer personalized care plans, biometric monitoring devices for weight, blood pressure and pulse, 24-hour telephonic nurse access and group education and support sessions, CMS notes in a release.

About 14 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have congestive heart failure, but they account for 43 percent of Medicare spending, CMS points out. About 18 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have diabetes, yet they account for 32 percent of Medicare spending.

More information is at www.cms.hhs.gov/CCIP.

HHAs' Spending Growth May Thwart Payment Increase

There may be more bad news for home health agencies' hopes for a Medicare payment rate increase in 2007. Medicare spending on home health grew 15.2 percent in 2005, states the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary. That's the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth, CMS notes in a release.

CMS expects Medicare home health spending to increase an average of 6.9 percent annually from 2007 to 2015. Medicaid home health spending grew 18.6 percent in 2005, CMS estimates, and will continue to increase an average of 10.9 percent a year from 2007 to 2015. More information is at www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/03_NationalHealthAccountsProjected.asp.