Last week, CMS issued the CY 2017 Medicare Home Health Prospective Payment System Final Rule.
Overall, CMS estimates a 0.7% reduction in Medicare home health payments ($130 million in 2017 nationally.)
Here are the ingredients:
- A market basket update of 2.5% (a $450 million increase)
- A 0.97% reduction in the national, episodic base rate due to “nominal” case-mix growth (a $160 million decrease)
- A rebasing adjustment to the national episodic payment, per-visit rate and non-routine medical supplies conversion factor –the final year of the 4-year rebasing phase-in ( a $420 million decrease)
Wage Index Adjustments
- Rural NH, CY 2017 – 1.0212, an increase over the 2016 wage index of 1.0041
- Urban, CBSA 31700 – Hillsborough, CY 2017 – 0.9865, a decrease from the 2016 wage index of 1.0074
- Urban, CBSA 40484 – Rockingham/Strafford, CY 2017 – 0.9865, a decrease from the 2016 wage index of 0.9946
Payment Changes for Negative Wound Pressure Therapy Using a Disposable Device
- This is complicated. The Home Care Association of NY State did an excellent overview of the payment changes. See attachment.
Other Components of the Rule
- Significant changes to the outlier payment methodology
- CMS’s plans to group HHPPS claims centrally during claims processing
- Updates to the HHVBP Pilot Program
- Updates to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program
- Submission requirements of the OASIS to avoid a payment rate reduction in 2017
HCANH will provide you with more detailed analyses from the national associations when it’s are available.
Other resources:
- CMS Fact Sheet
- Final Rule, Federal Register
- CY 2017 Home Health Wage Index – scroll to bottom of page