The 2024 Legislative Session came to a close on May 8.  As anticipated, and due to the murder of home health nurse Joyce Grayson, the state’s legislative priorities were primarily focused on safety protections and education for home and community-base providers. 

 

To view the entire RSK end of session report, click here.

 

Beginning June 3, hospice and attending physicians must be enrolled in or validly opted out of Medicare for services to be paid. In response to continued implementation challenges associated with this requirement, NHPCO and NAHC reached out to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for additional clarity. CMS updated its Questions and Answers (Q&A) Document, which provides additional guidance regarding hospice certifying physician enrollment requirements, and issued an MLN Matters article with additional details. NHPCO and NAHC continue to engage with CMS on this issue.

 

Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted a notice on the Home Health Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) webpage announcing that the demonstration is being extended for five years.  The demonstration was scheduled to end on May 31, 2024, and the extension is not a surprise. States currently in the demonstration—Illinois, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Oklahoma—will continue in their current review cycle and follow their regular cycle timelines. CMS did not mention in the notice whether the demonstration will extend to other states.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) unveiled its final overtime rule, which is set to go into effect this summer. The rule increases a minimum salary threshold for millions of workers across the country, and could impact home health and home care providers.

 

Broadly, the DOL has increased the salary threshold for the minimum compensation necessary for an individual to be exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

 

“For federal purposes, that minimum salary threshold will increase as of July 1 of this year, and then increase again at the beginning of 2025, and then continue to increase every three years, so that the salary threshold doesn’t become out of date with actual compensation,” Angelo Spinola, the home health, home care and hospice chair at the law firm Polsinelli, told Home Health Care News.

Traditional home-based care companies aren’t the only ones serving seniors, while helping shift care away from brick-and-mortar settings. Adult day, PACE and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) without walls are a few of the care models working to meet the needs of seniors that want to age in place. In many ways, these care models are natural allies to home-based care providers.

 

Nonprofit aging services organization Parker Health Group started out as a residential service provider. The company’s communities included nursing homes, assisted living and more.

 

Over the last 10 years, Parker has expanded into the home- and community-based care space.