CMS-1450-F

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule (CMS-1450-F) to update Medicare's Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) payment rates and wage index for calendar year (CY) 2014. As required by Section 3131(a) of the Affordable Care Act, this rule implements rebasing adjustments, with a 4-year phase-in, to the national, standardized 60-day episode payment rates; the national per-visit rates; and the NRS conversion factor. Payments to home health agencies (HHAs) are estimated to decrease by approximately 1.05 percent, or -$200 million in CY 2014, reflecting the combined effects of the 2.3 percent HH payment update percentage ($440 million increase), the rebasing adjustments to the national, standardized 60-day episode payment rate, the national per-visit payment rates, and the NRS conversion factor ($520 million decrease), and the effects of ICD-9-CM HH PPS Grouper refinements ($120 million decrease). This final rule also discusses our transition to ICD-10-CM coding, establishes home health quality reporting requirements for CY 2014 payment and subsequent years, specifies that Medicaid responsibilities for home health surveys be explicitly recognized in the State Medicaid Plan, and revises the methodology for calculating state Medicaid programs’ fair share of Home Health Agency (HHA) survey costs.