Medicare Home Health PPS Rules and Rates for 2013 July 9

CMS has announced the publication of the Proposed PPS Rules and Rates for 2013. There are numerous changes included in this proposed rule. This update will include a summary of the key items in the proposed rule. We will follow up this email for the next few days with details on some of the areas.

Description	Proposed Rate 2013	Current Rate 2012	Increase	Percent Increase
Urban Agency Base Rate*	$2,141.95	$2,138.52	$3.43	0.16%
Rural Agency Base Rate*	$2,206.21	$2,202.68	$3.53	0.16%

 *This must be adjusted by wage index and case mix

Total PPS rates increase by 1.5 percent for inflation and decrease by 1.32 percent for case mix creep. The proposed rule establishes requirements for unannounced, standard and extended surveys of home health agencies. It provides a number of alternative or intermediate sanctions that could be imposed if the home health agencies were out of compliance with Federal regulations. It provides some additional guidance in physician face-to-face encounters. It also provides some guidance in the therapy measurements and assessments. The rule also provides information on quality measures for Hospice quality Reporting Program and data submission.