Proposed Home Health PPS Rules & Rates for 2017 - 7/5/2016

CMS has issued the Proposed Home Health PPS Rules & Rates for 2017 late Tuesday July 5^th.  The overall impact is to reduce home health payment by 1% or $180 million in 2017.  This is the first of several email alerts that we will publish this week on the information contained in the proposed rules & rates for 2017. 

2017 National Standardized 60-Day Episode Rate   $2,936.68

The national standard 60-day episode rate is the basis for all home health payments.  Home health agency patients living in a rural area have the 3 percent add on which is scheduled to expire on January 1, 2018.  Home health agencies that do not submit quality data will have the above rates reduced by an additional 2 percent. 

Proposed National Urban Agency Rate                                               $2,936.68

Proposed Urban Agency Rate That Do Not Submit Quality Data      $2,879.27

Proposed Rural Agency Rate                                                               $3,024.78

Proposed Rural Agency Rate That Do Not Submit Quality Data        $2,965.65

Your individual home health agency rate will also be adjusted by location wage index. 

Other items included in the proposed rule:

1.       Changes to the outlier program computations

2.       New payment measures to meet (IMPACT) 2014

3.       Changes in the HHVBP Model

4.       Changes in Case-Mix Weights

 

Link

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-07-05/pdf/2016-15448.pdf