Medicare rates for home health prospective payments will rise by 2% in 2010, the CMS announced.
Home health Medicare rates to rise 2% in 2010
The CMS also said it will cap home health outlier payments at 10% per home health agency and target total outlier payments at 2.5%. The current aggregate target for outlier payments is 5%. Home health agencies receive these outlier payments for 60-day home health episodes of care that carry unusually high costs. “This final regulation builds on Medicare’s efforts to refine its payment systems while working to reduce waste, fraud and abuse,” Jonathan Blum, director of CMS’s Center for Medicare Management, said in a statement.
The CMS will publicly report 12 quality measures plus 13 new process measures on its home health compare Website, and future payments will be based on the quality and reporting efforts of home health agencies, starting in January.
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