CMS has posted the latest Home Health Agency Public Use File (PUF), with data from 2016.
 
The PUF contains information on home health utilization, payment, submitted charges and demographic and chronic condition indicators organized by CMS Certification Number, Home Health Resource Group and state of service.
 
Data cover 2013-16 and contain 100% final-action institutional claims for the Medicare fee-for-service population, according to CMS’ August 2018 methodological overview.
 
The PUF has information for 10,139 home health agencies in 2016 — 387 fewer than in 2015 and 743 fewer than in 2014.
 
It includes 5.9 million non-LUPA episodes involving nearly 3.5 million distinct beneficiaries.
 
The total home health Medicare payment amount (non-LUPA) was about $18.6 billion in 2016.
 
Note that prior versions of the PUF relied on data files produced after a full 12 months of runout after the end of each calendar year. But the new version of is based on data files produced after 18 months of maturity.
 
Related links: View the Home Health PUF at https://go.cms.gov/1mrPlh6 and https://go.cms.gov/2MI6rZJ.
 
 
 
Most commonly used HHRGs
 
The following data for the top five HHRGs by highest number of episodes in 2016 was released by CMS in August 2018. The trove of data is dubbed the Home Health Agency Utilization and Payment Public Use File (Home Health Agency PUF).
 
HHRG
HHRG description
Total number of episodes
Unique beneficiaries served
Average agency charge amount
Average Medicare payment amount
1BGK
Early Episode, 0-13 therapies, Clinical Severity Level 2,  Functional Severity Level 2,Service Severity Level 1
315,324
288,833
$1,937
$2,207
3CHK
Late Episode, 0-13 therapies, Clinical Severity Level 3,  Functional Severity Level 3,Service Severity Level 1
296,729
146,051
$3,137
$2,477
3BGK
Late Episode, 0-13 therapies, Clinical Severity Level 2,  Functional Severity Level 2,Service Severity Level 1
284,953
149,798
$2,136
$1,845
1BHK
Early Episode, 0-13 therapies, Clinical Severity Level 2,  Functional Severity Level 3,Service Severity Level 1
261,160
244,676
$2,025
$2,301
1CHK
Early Episode, 0-13 therapies, Clinical Severity Level 3,  Functional Severity Level 3,Service Severity Level 1
253,837
228,248
$2,587
$2,569
Source: CMS