What You Need to Know About the 2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule
What You Need to Know About the 2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule
CMS has released the 2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Proposed Rule, expanding on the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model (CMS, 2021). Home health agencies that do not meet the required reporting guidelines will now receive a 2%-point reduction in their annual update. The comment period is open now through August 27.
Changes in the HH PPS Proposed Rule
In 2022, CMS will increase payments to home health agencies by 1.8 percent. This will result in an additional $330 million to these organizations. CMS also proposed reductions to the rural add-on payment, potentially leading to a 0.1% or $20 million decrease in payments.
CMS will make some conditions of participation that were enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency permanent. This would include the required 14-day on-site supervisory visits for patients receiving skilled nursing services currently in place. These visits could be performed via telehealth; however, CMS will recommend most of these visits to be done on-site.
CMS also proposed an expansion to the home health value-based payment program nationwide. Home health agencies in 9 states are currently participating in the program. Participating providers experienced an improvement in quality scores by 4.6%. There was also a $141 million average annual savings to Medicare, according to CMS.
In addition, CMS will allow occupational therapists to perform initial assessments of home health Medicare patients. This will apply if their care plan does not include skilled nursing services but does include physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech-language pathology.
For more information about the HH PPS Proposed Rule, visit the CMS website.
You can find information regarding the 2022 Inpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule, 2022 ICD-10-CM Updates, and 2022 ICD-10-PCS Updates on the YES Blog.
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