Posted on Friday, January 25, 2019 11:56 PM
As we covered here, MedPAC is calling for a 5% cut on home health rates and 2% reduction on hospice rates.
“In addition to home health and hospice, MedPAC also made recommendations for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) and Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs). For the SNFs, they approved a recommendation that the fiscal year 2020 base payment rate be eliminated. This is estimated at a savings between $5 billion and $10 billion over five years.
For IRFs, a five percent base rate reduction was approved with a predicted savings of $5 billion and $10 billion. LTCHs were the only post-acute care provider to receive a recommended increase. The Commission approved the two percent increase, which is predicted to generate a savings of less than $1 billion over five years. While counter-intuitive to think an increase would result in decreased spending, the savings would be the result of an expected 2.8% regulatory update.”
MedPAC’s recommendations are just suggestions to Congress. NAHC is fighting against these recommendations, explaining that Medicare profit margins are not at all indicative of a home care or hospice agency’s overall profit margins, if these cuts are implemented it could s result in severe damage to the community and endanger access to badly-needed care for millions of Americans. Thankfully, Congress has typically sided with NAHC and not MedPAC on this issue.
Source: NAHC Report
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