LeadingAge Urges Co-Sponsorship of Federal Home Health Payment Innovation Act

LeadingAge NY has been meeting with New York congressional representatives on a wide range of issues this summer. One priority issue has been the Home Health Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 2573/S. 433), which would prevent a destructive 8 percent payment cut to Medicare home health services for the country’s growing elderly population. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 made significant changes to the Medicare home health payment system by allowing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce Medicare rates to home health providers under the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) based on faulty behavioral assumptions that providers are upcoding their services.

This bill requires the use of evidence, not assumptions, to make payment changes, allowing for a more accurate reimbursement system that better aligns payment with patient care needs. The bill also limits these reductions to no more than 2 percent annually and waives homebound rules for certain Medicare beneficiaries.

There is strong bipartisan support for this bill, yet only two co-sponsors are from New York State. We ask LeadingAge NY members to email their members of Congress TODAY to request co-sponsorship and support of this legislation. The bill would help mitigate these adverse incentives in the home health prospective payment system and better align payments with the costs of services. We need to have this bill passed before the Bipartisan Budget Act changes go into effect at the end of this year!

To personalize a letter to your congressional representative on this issue, click here.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871