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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its proposed rule for the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) for calendar year (CY) 2022.
Notably, the rule proposes nationwide expansion of the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Home Health Value Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model, which has been implemented on a pilot basis in nine randomly selected states since 2016. If the proposed policy is finalized, the first performance year of the expanded HHVBP Model would be CY 2022, with quality performance data from that year used to calculate payment adjustments under the expanded model in CY 2024.
CMS estimates that overall Medicare payments to home health agencies in CY 2022 will increase by 1.7% ($310 million), reflecting the proposed 1.8% update and a 0.1% decrease in payments due to reductions made in the rural add-on percentages.
Additionally, the rule includes proposals that would:
- Update home infusion therapy services payment adjustments
- Update the geographic adjustment factor used for wage adjustment
- Maintain the percentages finalized for the initial and subsequent visit payment policy
- Make permanent selected regulatory waivers related to home health aide supervision and the use of telecommunication that were issued during the COVID-19 public health emergency
Finally, similar to the proposed facility rules releases in April, the HH PPS proposed rule includes requests for information related to health equity and the agency’s future plans to define digital quality measures for the HH Quality Reporting Program.
