Home Health Agency (HHA) Center

• Abt Associates' July 21, 2010 "Analysis of 2000-2008 Home Health Case-mix Change [ZIP, 45KB]" report estimates the extent to which the observed increases in average case-mix were associated with changes in patient characteristics that reflect real case-mix change versus other nominal factors such as agency coding practices. This report is an update to the original April 2008 "Refinement of Medicare's Home Health Prospective Payment System:  Final Report [PDF, 2.6MB]" and subsequent August 20, 2009 update "Analysis of 2006-2007 Home Health Case-mix Change:  Final Report [PDF, 1.9MB]" and describes updates to the home health case-mix change analysis since the CY 2010 HH PPS Final Rule (CMS-1560-F), up to and through the recently published CY 2011 proposed rule (CMS-1510-P).  (posted 7/23/2010).

• CMS-1510-P (Publication Date: July 23, 2010): The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to update the Medicare Home Health Prospective Payment (HH PPS) rates for calendar year (CY) 2011.  Specifically, this rule proposes to update the rates by the home health market basket update minus 1 percentage point, per the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 (for a 1.4% increase), and update the case-mix reduction percentage for CY 2011 to 3.79% to account for the additional increases in case-mix not due to the underlying condition of the home health patient. The rule also proposes implementation approaches for ACA provisions which affect home health outlier payments and certification requirements for the Medicare home health and hospice benefits.  In addition, this rule proposes changes to the HH capitalization requirements, proposes to add clarifying language to home health the therapy coverage regulations, and provides clarification regarding the quality reporting requirements for the CY 2012 HH PPS rate update as it relates to HHCAHPS. 
• Health Reform:  Medicare Home Health Rural Add-on [PDF, 11KB] (posted 04/01/10)
• CR6759 - Limitation on Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Outlier Payments.  This Change Request describes the 10 percent cap that applies to outlier payments under the HH PPS for CY 2010 (issued 12/23/09).
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided guidance (clarifying information) regarding the new CY 2010 outlier policy under the Home Health prospective Payment System (HH PPS), which was promulgated in the Medicare Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate Update for CY 2010 Final Rule (CMS-1560-F), in the following Qs & As: HH PPS Outlier Policy Q's &A's (posted 11/20/2009)

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