Medicare Proposes $375 Million Pay Cut for Home Health Agencies

Overall Medicare payments to home health agencies would fall 2.2%, or $375 million, in 2024 under a proposed rule released Friday by the Biden administration.

While the proposed update (RIN 0938-AV03) would bump payments 2.7%, or $460 million, home health agencies would also absorb a 5.1% decrease of $870 million based on the assumption that the agencies altered their billing and coding activity to maximize reimbursements in 2020 and 2021.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had proposed a “permanent behavior assumption adjustment” cut of 7.85%, or $1.3 billion, in 2023, but decided to pare its final ...