CMS Delays the Home Health Agency Conditions of Participation Again
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on Sat., July 8th that they would extend the effective date of the final Home Health Agency (HHA) Conditions of Participation (CoPs) by an additional six months beyond the original July 13, 2017 effective date. The new HHA CoPs are now effective on Jan. 13, 2018. The final rule (CMS-3819-F2) is available on the Federal Register website.
CMS has also changed the dates on two other components of the final rule. A new date has been issued for the Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI), 484.65(d), "Standard: Performance improvement projects." The performance improvement projects will be phased in more slowly than other QAPI requirements, with a six-month delay. The new phase-in date is July 13, 2018.
CMS has also proposed to revise 484.115 (a), "Standard: Administrator, home health agency." CMS had suggested grandfathering in all administrators employed by HHAs prior to the effective date of the January 2017 HHA CoPs final rule, meaning those administrators employed by an HHA prior to July 13, 2017 would not have to meet the new personnel requirements. Now, with this new rule, CMS has proposed to extend this date by another six months. This part of the rule replaces the July 13, 2017 effective date at 484.115(a)(1) and (2) with the proposed effective date of Jan. 13, 2018.
LeadingAge NY and LeadingAge National had both advocated for a delay in implementing this final rule until the Interpretive Guidelines had been posted. We stressed that HHAs needed to have time to implement the changes and be fully aware of what they entailed as outlined within the Interpretive Guidance. CMS stated in the final rule that the final version of the Interpretive Guidelines will be published in December 2017. Several comments received by CMS supported the delay in the rule until July 2018, or until six months or one year after CMS releases the revised Interpretive Guidance. We continue to maintain that once the Interpretive Guidance is published, HHAs should have additional time to implement the changes.
Some commenters had requested a delay in implementing the new federal emergency preparedness regulations. CMS stated that “changing the effective date for the emergency preparedness requirements is outside the scope of this rule as the emergency preparedness requirements were established in separate rulemaking (81 FR 63859)."
LeadingAge NY will keep members posted on any new developments.
Contact: Cheryl Udell, cudell@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871