President Joe Biden focused on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic during his first full day in office Thursday. In doing so, he once again drew attention to home-based care and getting the current “workforce crisis” under control. “Our national strategy is comprehensive,” Biden said during an address from the White House. “It’s based on science, not […]
HHS
Home health providers are getting one of their biggest wishes granted. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday that it is expanding the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model. First implemented in 2016, the HHVBP Model is currently active in just nine states: Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Washington, Arizona, Iowa, […]
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) was supposed to define home health care in 2020. Instead, this year was almost entirely shaped by COVID-19, a point that’s reinforced by the most widely read stories on Home Health Care News. Of the top-10 stories on HHCN in 2020, eight were related to coronavirus coverage. From the first […]
President-elect Joe Biden has picked Xavier Becerra, the current attorney general of California, to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to several news reports. Prior to serving as California’s top prosecutor, Becerra represented the Los Angeles area in Congress for 12 years. HHS is currently headed by Secretary Alex Azar. […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday issued an emergency use authorization for the first COVID-19 diagnostic at-home test. The move will not have an immediate impact on in-home care providers, but it could give them one more tool in their pandemic toolbox in weeks to come. The FDA specifically signed off on the […]
Although the concrete details are unknown, the federal government appears to be taking steps toward distributing point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic tests to home health agencies, which have largely been prioritized behind skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and other congregate aging services providers. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Aug. 27 that it […]
Federal watchdogs are once again setting their sights on perceived improper billing practices by home health agencies. In an audit report published last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that stronger oversight of Low Utilization Payment Adjustments (LUPAs) in home health care could have saved […]
Home health care is beginning to manage the COVID-19 crisis at a more sustainable pace, and early signs have suggested that the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) may not have been the boogeyman that some providers suspected it was. But the rosy outlook of the first six months of PDGM may be premature. Federal relief funding […]
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and its unintended ripple effects were supposed to be the dominant story this year for the nation’s 12,000 or so Medicare-certified home health care providers. But the coronavirus has rewritten the script for 2020, throwing most of the industry’s previous projections out the window. While PDGM — implemented on Jan. […]
After nearly two months of waiting, Medicaid-reimbursed in-home care providers appear to finally be getting some financial assistance to help cover coronavirus costs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday it is distributing an estimated $15 billion to providers that participate in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). HHS […]
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