The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is once again recommending a 5% Medicare payment reduction for home health agencies. It's also recommending that Medicare payments to post-acute care (PAC) providers in the 2019 fiscal year be based "on a blend of each sector’s setting-specific relative weights and the relative weights that would be used under a unified PAC prospective payment system."
 
These recommendations were included in MedPAC's March 2018 Report to Congress.
 
In its report to Congress last year, MedPAC recommended a 5% payment reduction and a two-year rebasing.
 
CMS finalized a 0.5% reduction in home health payments for 2018.
 
MedPAC has previously contended that home health agencies’ profit margins justified omission of an inflation update for them (HHL 3/28/16).
 
Congress has rejected MedPAC’s recommendations in recent years, but allegations of provider overpayments could affect how payment system innovations are constructed, industry experts contend (HHL 2/6/17).