CMS Announces New Initiative To Promote Value-Based Home Health Care

Posted on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 8:44 AM

CMS has announced a proposal to launch a new model designed to support higher quality of care among Medicare beneficiaries. The model is included in the CY 2016 Home Health Prospective Payment System proposed rule. The proposed Home Health Value-Based Purchasing model would test whether incentives for better care can improve outcomes in the delivery of home health services. As more people seek to be taken care of in their homes and communities, CMS is aiming to make sure that care in the home is supported by value-based care delivery model that is consistent with the rest of the system. The model “leverages the successes and lessons learned from other value-based purchasing programs and demonstrations” and would apply a payment reduction or increase to current Medicare-certified home health agency payments, depending on quality performance. Additionally, the proposal cuts Medicare rates by $350 million and includes the third year of a four-year phased “rebasing” of the standardized 60-day home care episode rate to recover several years of overpayments. The rule also calls for an additional 1.72% cut to the standard episode rate in 2016 and 2017 to account for CMS’ “nominal” growth in case-mix sensitivity. CMS will solicit comments until September 4, 2015. Click here for more information. Click here to read more from CMS.


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