CMS has released the sixth annual report on the nine-state model of Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP).
 
CMS noted a cumulative decrease of $1.3 billion in spending for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries using home health, largely driven by reduced spending on inpatient services.
 
The national rollout of HHVBP is currently in its first performance year, with the first payment adjustments planned in 2025.
 
This new report also noted a 0.3% to 0.5% decrease in HHCAHPS survey scores on professionalism, communication and discussion of care by the agencies, but CMS stated that “this does not translate to an especially meaningful impact of HHVBP on these aspects of patient experience with care, given the high overall levels of performance on these measures.”
 
Other findings of the sixth annual report for the pilot states include:
  • Agency Total Performance Scores are higher in each of the six years of the original model.
  • Increase in outpatient emergency department use accompanied by a decrease in emergency department use leading to an inpatient admission.
  • Modest gains in quality of care include greater improvements in functional outcomes.
  • Modest increase in shift of skilled nursing and therapy visits to early weeks of home health episode among HHVBP agencies