The home health portion of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) annual report largely reiterates the recommendations it made to Congress last year.

For hospice, the commission recommends a 2013 payment update of 0.5%, as previously reported in HHL.

For home health, recommendations include:

  • A copay of $150 for episodes not preceded by a hospitalization or post-acute stay.
  • A revision to the home health case-mix system that would base therapy payments on patient characteristics, not visit numbers.

In addition, MedPAC reiterated several previous recommendations for hospice, such as:

  • A focused medical review that would target hospices with a 40% or higher rate of patients whose length of stay exceeds 180 days.
  • The implementation of a U-shaped payment model (higher payments at the beginning of the episode and at the end, lower payments in between).

For more on the MedPAC report, see the March 26 issue of HHL.