The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has signed off on the home health payment rule finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last month.
After its review, the GAO found that CMS appropriately determined the impact of the difference between assumed versus actual behavior change on estimated aggregate expenditures for home health payments, Home Health Care News reports.
“GAO found that the final rule finalizes a corresponding permanent prospective adjustment to the CY 2023 home health payment rate, according to CMS,” Shirley Jones, managing associate general counsel for the GAO, wrote in a summary. “[The rule] finalizes the reassignment of certain diagnosis codes under the PDGM case-mix groups and establishes a permanent mitigation policy to smooth the impact of year-to-year changes in home health payments related to changes in the home health wage index.” Read more.
