The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will immediately stop enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandates for home health workers and other health care staff. In light of the public health emergency (PHE) ending on May 11, the Biden administration announced in early May that it planned to end vaccination requirements for federal workers […]
Category: Medicare
Home health stakeholders are urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to address an alleged forecast error in the home health market basket for 2021 and 2022. Broadly, CMS calculates the expected impact of cost inflation for home health agencies annually. In order to do this, CMS relies on a forecasting methodology from […]
When it comes to legislation aimed at expanding at-home care initiatives, most have learned to temper expectations from the jump. That’s part of the reason why the new, sweeping Expanding Care in the Home Act (ECHA) casts such a wide net. When the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Moving Health Home was formed, two of the […]
Home-based care has experienced a series of symbolic wins in 2023, many of which came from President Biden himself or his administration. But not all home-based care providers feel like victors. Home-based care is a broad term, and there is a large chunk of providers that haven’t felt the warmth from policymakers in Washington, D.C., […]
A new bill that would remove certain barriers to home-based care will soon be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Expanding Care in the Home Act (ECHA) would, among other things, create a personal care services benefit in Medicare to give aid to beneficiaries who are unable to afford out-of-pocket payments but don’t […]
A new report from the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services could be the first step in further expanding the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) model nationwide. Specifically, the committee believes that expanding PACE to more rural parts of the U.S. will help close gaps in long-term care. “[We] […]
Medicare fee-for-service rates are not where home health providers want them to be. That’s forced their hand when negotiating rates with other payer sources. “We are payer agnostic, but we’re payer selective,” Traditions Health CEO David Klementz said Thursday at Home Health Care News’ Capital + Strategy event in Washington, D.C. Traditions Health is a […]
Home health stakeholders often talk about the need to modernize the Medicare home health benefit. What they are often getting at is the need to make it easier for providers to deliver crucial care, while, in turn, creating better access to care. “We constantly need to be thinking about what’s ahead, how to improve this […]
Back in January, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) voted unanimously to recommend a 7% payment cut for home health agencies in 2024. The commission officially released its report to Congress on Wednesday. Broadly, the report covers Medicare payment policy, including the Medicare fee-for-service payment systems for home health care. Roughly 3 million Medicare fee-for-service […]
Participating in home-based cardiac rehabilitation — following a heart attack or cardiac procedure — can help lower the possibility of death resulting from heart-related complications. Specifically, home-based cardiac rehabilitation led to a 36% decrease in death within four years of participation. That’s according to new research published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart […]
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