President's MessagePosted: June 29, 2022 So, the 2023 Proposed Final Rule is upon us. And it is ugly. The long and short of it is a 4.2% decrease in reimbursement versus 2022. This is along with the onset of Home Health Value Based Purchasing AND OASIS E on January 1, 2023. Yes, I agree that it looks like CMS is asking more of us and paying us less. And CMS says that they are paying the Home Health industry 7.69% more under PDGM than under the previous iteration of PPS, but that PDGM is supposed to be budget-neutral. CMS is arguing that this can be attributed mostly, if not completely, to “behavioral changes”—changes in how agencies answer the OASIS questions, and changes in how agencies assign ICD-10 codes. We as an industry beg to differ, but hold that thought for a moment. What is APTA Home Health doing about this? I have already met with APTA’S Regulatory Affairs department once to begin strategizing. And our Government Affairs Committee will meet this week to further discuss this. All this despite the fact that we are all still digesting the entire Rule. I have not yet been able to read it in its entirety. I expect it to make for stimulating reading on the beach this week. What can YOU do in response to this proposal? USE YOUR VOICE! Shortly, there will be a sample comment letter that you will be able to utilize. Keep an eye out for that in your e-mail, on Facebook, and on Twitter. The more comments that CMS receives from us, the more stock they put in our views. If you have hard data to prove that our clients are more ill, more complex, and more resource-intensive than CMS believes them to be, please come forward with it if you are able to! We need the statistics and data to prove CMS wrong. We know that our clients and the majority of older Americans want to stay at home, and we know that the services that we provide in the home are vital, and save CMS and the health care system as a whole millions of dollars. We need to speak out NOW to be able to continue providing those services and be reimbursed in a manner consistent with our value. Sincerely,
|
