A bipartisan bill introduced by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee would make Medicare home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehab facilities and long-term care hospitals compete against each other for quality-based bonus payments.
 
As proposed in July by Republican Kevin Brady of Texas and co-sponsored by Democrat Ron Kind of Wisconsin, the bill’s changes in post-acute reimbursement would be different from changes under consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. Titled the Bundling and Coordinating Post-Acute Care Act of 2015 (H.R. 1458), the Energy and Commerce bill would authorize private-sector coordinators to guide patients through the process” of choosing a provider following an inpatient stay (HHL 4/27/15).
 
The Ways and Means bill would require CMS to establish individual performance standards for each category of post-acute provider as well as for the hospital service area in which the provider is located. Rankings would determine the amount of incentive payment received by each provider, with individual rankings accounting for 55% of incentive amount and the hospital service area score 45%.
 
Although Ways and Means currently has no hearings scheduled for the Brady-Kind bill, the committee “plans to do more” with the proposed legislation, with one or more future hearings and consideration of a final bill likely, a committee staffer suggests.