Today CMS released a trove of data on home health utilization, payments and submitted charges by provider, state and home health resource group (HHRG) dubbed the Home Health Agency Utilization and Payment Public Use File (Home Health Agency PUF).
 
You can find data for your agency using the six-digit identification number, CMS says. Services provided by the agency are grouped according to case-mix groups or HHRGs. The data set has, for each agency and HHRG, the total number of episodes, number of beneficiaries, total and average charges, the total and average Medicare payments and the total and average Medicare standardized payments. Low utilization, LUPA episodes and outlier payments are also included, CMS says.
 
The data also allow for geographic comparisons of costs and utilization of home health services, including per episode costs, CMS says.
 
The data set was created from CMS administrative claims data for Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the fee-for-service program available from the CMS Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (www.ccwdata.org), CMS says. The data cover calendar year 2013 and are based on home health agency Part A institutional claims. The data set includes information on 11,062 agencies, more than 6 million claims and over $18 billion in Medicare payments.
 
Related links: Find the data here: http://tinyurl.com/j3h45ot.