The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final rule to update the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) rates for Calendar Year (CY) 2013. Payments to home health agencies are estimated to be virtually unchanged next year, decreasing by approximately $10 million in CY 2013 (about 0.01%).   This reflects the net effect of a 1.3 percent home health payment update, an updated wage index, an update to the fixed-dollar loss (FDL) ratio, and a case-mix coding adjustment intended to offset coding changes unrelated to changes in patient health needs.

Here’s a link to the CMS Fact Sheet.

At Leading Home Care, we will continue to gather facts and data about how these changes are affecting home health agencies across the country.   During our visit to the 2012 National Association for Home Care Meeting in Orlando, it was pretty evident how much the 2012 cuts have negatively affected home health agencies across the country.