Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) staff are recommending a 7% cut to the 2020 base payment rate for home health.
 
The recommendation came during a Dec. 5, 2019, MedPAC update entitled “Assessing Payment Adequacy and Updating Payments: Home Health Care Services.”
 
According to MedPAC, in 2018 Medicare spent $17.9 billion on home health services. That year there were more than 11,500 certified agencies that provided about 6.3 million episodes of care to 3.4 million beneficiaries.
 
While MedPAC said per capita utilization has gone down slightly since 2011, "it remains high relative to the utilization that occurred in the earlier 2000s." MedPAC went on to say that profit margins in home health agencies were 15.3% in 2018. And MedPAC contends that margins will be about 17% percent in 2020, even with changes including the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM).
 
Staff suggested that MedPAC recommend to Congress a 7% reduction to the CY2020 Medicare base payment rate for home health.
 
Related link: View a transcript of the Dec. 5, 2019, MedPAC meeting online at http://bit.ly/2S09pu2.