The home health industry gained a more significant share of post-acute care admissions after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new data shows. There was certainly a feeling at the time that home health agencies were gaining more patient admissions that may have previously gone to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). And while some data has […]
MedPAC
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is, once again, calling for federal policymakers to streamline alternative payment models within the Medicare program. Released late Wednesday, MedPAC’s June report details how that could theoretically be done. The focus on alternative payment models should come as no surprise for those who have been watching closely. In June […]
Home health agencies have had to navigate several changes since 2020, from the payment mechanics of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) to the new policies of the public health emergency (PHE). Yet there’s another change on the distant horizon that forward-thinking operators can’t afford to forget about: a unified payment system for post-acute care providers, […]
The measurements used to track the home health industry could use some updating to better align perception with reality, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). And interestingly enough, access may be one of the rare occasions where on-the-ground evidence tells a truer story than available data. “The access to home health appears to […]
Enrollment in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare has started to accelerate in recent years, as more members of the baby-boom generation age into the program. At the same time, the number of individual home health agencies in the U.S. continues to decline. That’s according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which reported on emerging Medicare trends […]
To reduce redundancies and confusion in the Medicare system, health care policymakers should consider implementing “a smaller, more harmonized” portfolio of alternative payment models (APMs). That’s according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which released its regular June report to Congress on Tuesday. “In many cases, providers participate in multiple [alternative payment models] simultaneously, […]
Long-term care providers have always had to stay on top of ever-changing shifts in trends, policies and regulations. The COVID-19 emergency has only made this task even more important. In today’s fast-paced environment, Harvard Medical School professor David Grabowski has turned into a major voice. Since last year, Grabowski has applied his expertise to a […]
Margins for Medicare-certified home health agencies are projected to remain strong in 2021, despite ongoing challenges tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Margins are anticipated to be so robust, in fact, that Congress should reduce the 2021 Medicare base payment rate for home health agencies by 5% […]
The home health industry is in a “dynamic state” and evolving into “multiple types of care,” according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). As a result, health care policymakers should start thinking about how to redesign the traditional home health benefit to make it more nimble, perhaps by breaking it up into pre-acute and […]
Home health providers have experienced varying degrees of disruption to their business models over the past dozen or so years, from the Patient Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) to smaller regulatory changes. But at the end of the day, the cost of doing business has gone up. And reimbursement levels don’t reflect that, according to Mark […]
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