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December 7, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() This Week at CT Healthcare At Home
News Update
Source: NAHC, Dec. 5, 2023
On Nov. 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held the Home Health, Hospice, and DME Open Door Forum. The article linked below provides key updates for home health providers. Tomorrow, we will feature the summary for hospice providers.
Source: Home Health Care News, Dec. 5, 2023
Several of the biggest changes in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) CY 2024 final home health rule deal with the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) model.
At face value, it may seem like the HHVBP process is being simplified in the way providers fill out OASIS forms. However, there’s more to it than just that.
“What is true today is not what’s going to be true with the final rule,” Cindy Krafft, owner of K&K Health Care Solutions, said during a MedBridge webinar on Tuesday. “I do believe that many people were so concerned about the reimbursement piece that there was not enough feedback in the open comment period about some of these other things.”
Source: NAHC, Nov. 17, 2023
The ongoing merger between two of the largest home care and hospice advocacy organizations is making significant progress, and its leaders discussed new and upcoming action items in a first-ever joint “town hall” meeting in November.
For the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, key priorities include overseeing the selection of a transition board, creating advance definitive agreements, ensuring overall synergy between the two organizations and gathering stakeholder input, NAHC’s board chair Ken Albert said during the town hall.
Source: The Health Group
The Office of Management and Budget recently revised Form CMS-855A , ‘Medicare Enrollment
Application for Institutional Providers,’ to include additional ownership information among other
changes. CMS began accepting submissions of the revised form on Nov. 17, 2023. Providers
may continue using the prior version of the enrollment form through Dec. 17, 2023. After
this time, the revised enrollment form must be used. For additional information, see CMS’ MLN
Fact Sheet, ‘New Ownership Reporting Requirements for Providers Using the Form CMS-855A.’
For calendar year 2024, CMS announced a $709 application fee for newly enrolling or revalidating
institutional providers or those with new practice locations.
Source: NAHC, Dec. 4, 2023
On Nov. 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an information bulletin that provided information about annual updates to the income standards for certain eligibility groups. A number of eligibility criteria for older adults and people with disabilities are based on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program’s Federal Benefit Rate (FBR).
In 2024, the FBR will increase from $914 a month to $943 (a 3.2 percent increase) and the eligibility groups based on SSI will increase accordingly. Similarly, other eligibility criteria, such as the home equity disregard, the Medicare Savings Program asset limits, and the Spousal Impoverishment standards will increase.
The new limits and additional information is available here.
Source: HomeHealthLine
Agencies should pay close attention to their fall interventions as recent Care Compare data showed improvement on quality measures except for the measure regarding falls.
The score released in the October 2023 update for “Percent of residents experiencing one or more falls with major injury” remained at 0.9%. A lack of movement on this measure nationally indicates an opportunity for agencies to stand out if they can move the needle with their agency’s outcomes.
The most recent results were based on data from January 2022 to December 2022.
Keep in mind that this measure is specific to falls with major injury and does not capture all falls that may have occurred, experts note.
Source: Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service
Oakland, NJ, November 2023 – The national average hourly rate for Hospice RNs increased 4.58% in 2023, according to the just released 2023-2024 Hospice Salary & Benefits Report, down slightly from the 5.95% increase seen in 2022. The Report is published by Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service (HCS) in cooperation with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
The national hourly rate for hospice RNs was $38.08. In a comparison of rates by state, RNs in Massachusetts received $45.08/hour; RNs in Connecticut received $45.15/hour; and California RNs ranked the highest in pay at $53.74/hour. On the lower spectrum, RNs in Mississippi received $32.90/hour; while RNs in Arkansas received $33.07/hour; and RNs in Tennessee received $33.93/hour. (Data reported are the national 50th percentile.)
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![]() Membership News
By Courtney Verissimo, Director of Membership and Education
One of the responsibilities of CAHH is to make members aware of services and tools that have the potential to impact your businesses in a positive way. In light of Joyce's death, I recently connected with Katana Safety (the premier provider of lone and workforce safety solutions for our industry) to inquire about their efforts to help protect home health workers. Katana Safety was started by Todd Baldree, when he learned that one-in-four women are sexually assaulted in college. Originally designed as a solution to help keep his college-bound daughter and others safe on campus, Katana Safety has evolved to become the nation's leading provider of personal safety solutions for home health, hospice and home care workers, as well as the social services industry.
The 2024 Leadership Summit for Home Health and Hospice is just weeks away. Both the conference and the evening’s intriguing mystery dinner are being held at the exquisitely appointed Colonnade Hotel in Boston. Register today and secure your spot at the early-bird rate.
What’s in store for this year’s event?
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