Medicare Proposed Home Health Payment Rule

Home Health Payment Update

HCA of MA has posted to its website, a summary of the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HHPPS) changes that are to be effective  on January 1, 2017. The proposed rule implements the last year of the 3.5 percent rebasing adjustments required by the Affordable Care Act; implements the second year of the three year phase-in of a case-mix adjustment; changes the methodology for outlier payments; proposes payment changes for Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT); discusses monitoring and research regarding the impact of the changes; seeks comments on a potential process for grouping claims centrally during processing; and proposes changes to the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model; and updates the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP).  The Alliance has prepared a PPS Rates spreadsheet with all of the HHRG rates in each county in MA.

Comments are due no later than August 26, 2016 no later than 5:00 p.m.

One Care Program Extended Through 2018

MassHealth announced that the One Care Program for individuals dually eligible for Medicare and MassHealth and between the ages of 21 and 64 has been extended through 2018.

Part of this new agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is that MassHealth will be accepting letters of intent (LOI) from entities interested in becoming One Care Plans effective January 1, 2018.

Beginning in 2013, the One Care program included several plans that were whittled down to what is now Commonwealth Care Alliance and Tufts Health Plan, which began participation in the initiative as Network Health. Funding issues were at the center of why other plans could not sustain covering One Care enrollees, although adjustments have been worked out that are intended to help plans better predict costs and assess financial risk. Fallon Total Care was the latest to drop their participation in June 2015.

Out of 103,041 eligible individuals, MassHealth reports that 13,038 are covered by the two One Care Plans. Commonwealth Care Alliance covers the bulk of that total with 10,050 enrollees as of June 1, 2016. According to the latest enrollment report, more than 30,000 individuals have “opted out” of the One Care Program.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

What the Senate’s Economic Development Bill did for Home Care

Late Thursday night, the Senate wrapped up debate on more than 200 amendments to legislation promoting economic and workforce development and the Home Care Alliance was active on several issues.

Senate Bill 2423, “An Act relative to job creation, workforce development and infrastructure investment,” created a a special commission to investigate and report on barriers to meeting labor market demands in the commonwealth. The commission’s report can include a broad range of industries, but according to the legislation, it must consist of cyber-security, high technology and biotechnology, early education and care, home care and home health. Despite this focus, the “labor commission,” as it was labeled, did not have a member that represented the home care industry.

Working together with the Home Care Aide Council, and Senator Patricia D. Jehlen’s office, an amendment was adopted to get a home care agency representative on that commission. If the Senate’s legislation advances and is passed, this commission will be shining a light on home care workforce issues on a level of importance that places it with other industries.

The other amendment, which was of great concern, was an effort that would have created a publicly-available registry with the personal information of home care workers. It was the same provision that showed up in legislation and FY17 budget amendments – all of which were defeated.

In this particular iteration, the result was a redrafted amendment to create a registry of home care workers that does NOT include personal information, but rather certifications and whether that worker has ever committed abuse, mistreatment or neglect of an elderly patient or consumer.

The Alliance thanks the many agencies that weighed in quickly with their state senator by phone and email on both of these matters.

The Senate’s legislation now must pass a conference committee process where differences between S.2423 and the House’s version of the bill must be worked out.

Further updates will be shared when they become available.

Return to www.thinkhome.care.

Advocacy Alert: Gain Support for Home Care in Workforce Development Bill

Today, the State Senate will be discussing more than 200 amendments to Senate Bill 2423, “An Act relative to job creation, workforce development and infrastructure investment.”

The Home Care Alliance is actively advocating on the following issues and urge HCA members and advocates to contact their state senator by sending a message through our ADVOCACY CENTER and calling offices by using the talking points below.

If you do NOT know who represents you in the State Senate, please visit this site for assistance.

  • OPPOSE Amendment #136 – “Strengthening the Home Care Program”
    • Background: This amendment would create a publicly-available registry listing the personal information of home care workers.
    • The Home Care Alliance is opposed to allowing the public access to the personal information of home care workers proposed in this amendment, including full legal name, date of birth, home address and gender of these workers.
    • This information provides no benefit to consumers of home care services and no benefits to home care workers.
  • SUPPORT Amendment #148 – “Labor Commission Membership”
    • Background: Section 109 of S.2423 creates a special commission to investigate and report on barriers to meeting labor market demands in the commonwealth, including home care – however, there is no home care membership on the commission.
    • The Home Care Alliance supports placing a home care agency representative with knowledge of home care workforce on the Labor Commission.

If you have any questions, please contact James Fuccione at the Alliance.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Governor Outlines Budget Vetoes, Slashes Pediatric Palliative Care

With $256 million in spending reductions, the Governor approved his final approved FY17 state budget and it’s now up to the House and Senate to now discuss overrides before formal sessions conclude at the end of July.

Among the items preserved was a $200,000 item for the Department of Higher Education that funds the Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Initiative. The Home Care Alliance is among a large group of stakeholders that advocates for funding that supports grants to teams of colleges, health care providers, and workforce investment boards to advance training and education for nurses and direct care workers.

The governor did, however, reduce the legislature’s funding recommendation for the pediatric palliative care network by $400,000. The remaining $1.8 million is essentially a level-funding from previous years. It was one of 303 line items that saw reduced funding.

The largest reduction the Governor recommended was a $17.8 million drop in Nursing Home Supplemental Rates. The House and conference committee had recommended a total of $337.9 million while the Senate had suggested $332.9 million, but the number being sent by the Governor back to the legislature currently sits at $330.1 million.

Details on the Governor’s FY17 budget can be found on the “Governor’s FY17 Vetoes” webpage.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org

Home Care Commission Denied in Budget, Cuts Handed to Elder Services

The merits of protecting consumers, setting minimum standards for companies and agencies providing in-home care, and controlling state costs were not enough to advance a Home Care Oversight Commission through the state budget.

The state’s FY17 Conference Committee released their final budget proposal on behalf of the legislature after regrouping in light of declining revenue projections. The Home Care Commission, which was included in the Senate budget, but not in the House, had to survive a “conference committee” of House ma budget pie chart picand Senate budget leaders that negotiated a fiscal plan between the two sides.

With Massachusetts being one of only five states without state oversight of home health care, and also with a goal to place some standards on private-pay home care, the commission would have convened legislators, home health agencies, private-pay home care, state officials, consumer groups and trade associations to recommend solutions. The language stipulated that there be separate sets of recommendations for home health and private pay home care.

Elsewhere in the budget, the declining revenue projections filtered through to hit the elder services network. Based on FY16 spending levels, a $2 million cut was made to “Elder Home Care Purchased Services” and $2.6 million reduction in the “Elder Home Care Case Management and Administration” account.

Two pieces of good news came in that Elder Protective Service got a boost of $4.5 over FY16 spending and the Pediatric Palliative Care Network received a boost of $404,578, but the Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Initiative remained leveled out at $200,000.

More silver lining came with a $1 million pilot program to test expanding income eligibility standards for services ordered by Aging Service Access Points.

In terms of MassHealth line items, the expected trends continued with the conference committee reducing the “Fee-for-Service” account by $161.7 million while increasing the accounts tied to MassHealth Managed Care ($71.1 million) and MassHealth Senior Care ($160.4 million).

Nursing Home Supplemental Rates also saw a raise with $45 million over FY16 spending.

The $39.15 billion budget now moves to the Governor for final approval and any further updates will be shared as they become available.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

HCA Breaks Down MassHealth 1115 Waiver Proposal

Months of stakeholder meetings and public engagement by MassHealth has resulted in a long-awaited draft proposal that aims to completely restructure the state’s Medicaid program.

Known as the Section 1115 Waiver, the 90-plus page document outlines a possible multi-year agreement  with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The focus of the proposal is a move towards accountable care organizations (ACOs) and alternative payments while better addressing the needs of MassHealth members and putting in place a financially sustainable system of health care and support services.

Before the agreement can be made with CMS, however, there is a public comment period that runs until July 17th. The Home Care Alliance created a breakdown of the proposal so that members and advocates can better understand the key provisions.

MassHealth also provided a more basic fact sheet available on their 1115 Waiver Proposal webpage that also includes the full document and slide decks from previous public meetings.

The proposal attempts to seize an opportunity for new funding streams to support the creation of three types of ACOs that are required to partner with existing providers of behavioral health (BH) and long-term services and supports (LTSS). The state aims to rearrange provider and managed care relationships to set forth a better coordinated and integrated set of networks.

The first “pilot ACOs” are expected by MassHealth to come online later in 2016, while the full roll-out of the three ACO models, enhanced funding, and BH/LTSS integration will take place in October 2017.

The Alliance was appointed to several of the MassHealth stakeholder groups and plans to submit comments on the proposal on behalf of home care.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

 

National Fraud “Hot Spots” Revealed in Largest-Ever Operation Announced by US DOJ

The US Department of Justice announced that 301 individuals have been charged with falsely billing Medicare a total of approximately $900 million in what is being called the largest coordinated Medicare fraud take down in history.

Home health services were among a list of services involved in the fraud schemes that also included physical and occupational therapy, durable medical equipment (DME) and prescription drugs. In the process, the HHS Inspector General released a data brief titled “Nationwide Analysis of Common Characteristics in OIG Home Health Fraud Cases.”

That data brief reveal some trends in outlier patterns among home health agencies and affiliated physicians, but also identifies 27 “hot spots” in 12 states where home health care fraud is prevalent. Massachusetts is not among the states shown in the map below where much of the home health fraud activity is occurring.

Recently, Massachusetts has been included in a planned “pre-claim review” demonstration starting “no earlier” than January 2017 that will, according to CMS, test whether such a process improves methods for the identification, investigation, and prosecution of Medicare fraud occurring among Home Health Agencies. Among the five states involved in the demonstration, Massachusetts is the only one not on any target list for the Medicare Fraud Task force known as HEAT (Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team). For many years, the Home Care Alliance has repeatedly advocated for a temporary moratorium on new Medicare home health providers in response to recent growth in the number of new agencies, but such efforts have been denied by Medicare.

2016 HHA Fraud Hotspots

According the to HHS Inspector General, these are areas where characteristics commonly found in OIG-investigated cases of home health fraud were prevalent. The report states that “many of these hotspots are areas already recognized as having high rates of Medicare fraud, which suggests that home health fraud in these areas is an ongoing concern and that enforcement and program integrity efforts should continue.”

2016 “Our Time to Shine” Innovation & Star Awards a Success!

HCA-assets(1)The Home Care Alliance of MA hosted their Annual “Our Time to Shine” event on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy, MA. With 10 Star Award winners, 3 Innovation winners, and over 150 in attendance it was a great day to celebrate home care!

*Preview just some of the pictures for the event below. More photos to come!*

Congratulations to our winners:

 

Clinicians of the Year:
Anne Luippold, RN, BSN, ONC, Salmon VNA & Hospice, Milford
Michelle Michaud, RN, Circle Home Care, Lowell
Mary NDegwa, RN, Comfort Home Care, Methuen

Aide of the Year:
Jane Rizza, Home Care Inc., (Home Health VNA), Westwood

Leadership & Collaboration Award:
Roxanna Harper & Jo Ann Wagner, Baystate VNA & Hospice, Springfield

Manager of the Year:
Darlene Connolly, RN, Steward Home Care, Lawrence

Physician of the Year:
Dr. David Green, Emerson Hospital Home Care, Concord

Legislator of the Year:
Senator Barbara L’Italien, D-Andover

Home Care Champion:
Meg Doherty, NVNA & Hospice, Norwell

Innovation in Staff Development:
Comfort Home Care, Psychiatric Nursing Board Certification Program

Innovation in Patient Care Deliver:
Partners Health Care at Home, Mobile Observation Unit

Commitment to an Innovation Culture:
South Shore Hospital Home Care Department, The MakerNurse Project

Here’s just a preview of pictures from this great event!

Advocacy Alert: Gain Support for the Home Care Oversight Commission

The roughly $40 billion that will make up the legislature’s FY17 proposal must first go through a six-member “conference committee” that will negotiate on differences between the House and Senate budget versions.

Included in the Senate version was a special commission that will study, discuss, and make recommendations on separate policies for state-based oversight of home health and private-pay home care agencies. It will take advocacy to ensure that this important provision is included in the conference committee’s negotiated budget, and action can be taken through the HCA’s Advocacy Center.

Simply fill out the contact forms and hit “send” to help gain support for the Home Care Commission!

The Commonwealth is one of five states without either licensure or a “certificate of need” process for home health care services. Massachusetts has also recently experienced rapid growth in the number of “certified” home health agencies. The related and significant spike in MassHealth spending has forced the state to establish program integrity measures on these agencies.

Likewise, private-pay home care agencies across the state that provide mostly non-medical support services in the home have no state oversight and a study commission is needed to determine the best solution.

The Alliance will continue to update it’s members on this proposal.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.