Two senators have asked CMS to carefully consider payment rates for home health services ahead of the release this summer of the 2025 proposed payment updates.
A letter from Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked CMS to “consider the value home health care provides to the Medicare program and its beneficiaries.”
In November 2023, CMS finalized a permanent 2.89% payment cut for home health. That followed a 3.9% permanent cut in 2022. And CMS has indicated there will be another permanent cut this year.
There is also more than $3.4 billion that CMS expects to claw back at some point for what it sees as excess reimbursements during the first three years of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM).
“As CMS proceeds to develop Medicare home health payment rates for 2025, we urge you to consider the value home health care provides to the Medicare program and its beneficiaries,” the joint letter reads. “We are concerned that CMS recently finalized home health payment methodology that has led to steep cuts, essentially cancelling out market basket updates intended to help Medicare payments keep up with inflation.”