By walking back severe cuts initially proposed in the home health payment rule, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was strategically trying to create positive feelings about the final rule in order to have an upper hand down the line. That is the assessment made by William A. Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), less than a week removed the final rule’s publishing, Home Health Care News reports.
That messaging, Dombi said, has helped CMS initially convince Congress that lawmakers may not have to make any additional changes.
“That has helped position CMS with Congress in thinking, ‘We may not have to do anything because they’re going to get more money in 2023 than they got in 2022,’” Dombi said. “But we know the reality is a lot different than that. You can’t have a $125 million increase in spending in home health and accommodate all the cost increases that have occurred in 2022. Those cost increases will also likely continue into 2023.” Read more.
