The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed changes Tuesday that would reduce Medicare payments to home health agencies by 0.3% in 2015. The proposed rule for 2015 cuts the Medicare home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) by $58 million, and reflects the effects of the 2.2% home health payment update percentage — […]
Category: Regulation
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in a landmark decision that Illinois home care workers who provide personal assistant care services are exempt from having to join and pay union dues. The Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) ruled 5-4 in Harris v. Quinn, stating that home care workers should not be required to pay […]
The Affordable Care Act’s employer insurance mandate, one of the most controversial elements of the health care reform law, has been the center of focus for home care agencies nationwide, and two congressmen are now taking action. As part of the mandate, companies with 50 or more full-time employees will be fined for failing to […]
More than 240 hospice advocates have converged on Capitol Hill Tuesday, in efforts to call on Congress to temporarily halt implementation of CMS actions they say are leaving hospice patients without medications they need at the end of life. The campaign is spearheaded by the Hospice Action Network (HAN) and the National Hospice and Palliative […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today told the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) that it is reversing its previous position on the face-to-face requirement for Medicare Advantage (MA) plan members who receive home health care services. In a memorandum issued by CMS on Wednesday, the agency clarified that a […]
An Illinois nonunion private healthcare workers’ case, recently heard by the Supreme Court, is putting a magnifying glass to the way such workers operate, and could change the way labor unions operate both within and outside of the home health sector. In the Harris v. Quinn case, nonunion private home care workers charge their First […]
After months of planning, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) has finally filed its lawsuit last week against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) over allegations regarding the federal agency’s rule for face-to-face physician encounters. The NAHC Board of Directors approved the lawsuit before its June 5 filing, citing the […]
Recently published findings from an audit of Medicaid and Medicare hospice providers found that 90% of those randomly sampled did not meet state hospice licensure requirements related to hospice workers. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General conducted an audit to determine whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) reliance […]
Hospices serving Medicare beneficiaries may see a $230 million, or 1.3%, payment increase in their reimbursements for fiscal year 2015, according to a recent proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). On May 2, CMS proposed an update to the wage index and payment rates for the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The payment […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will finally begin implementing its long-heralded fingerprint-based background checks for home health providers. As part of enhanced enrollment screening provisions contained in the Affordable Care Act, CMS announced it is beginning to phase in the implementation of fingerprinting background checks—an initiative three years in the making. The […]
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