Medicare gets strengthened by New Home Health regulations and Home Infusion Therapy rules which make patients a higher priority than paperwork
The CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) made the necessary changes to the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) according to President Trump’s “Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nations Seniors” Executive Order. These changes include a new home infusion therapy which furthers CMS’s goal of emboldening patients and providing them with more options.
This new version of the HH PPS will eliminate burdensome requirements which were part of the Medicare program. It will also increase Medicare payments to home health agencies by $250 million (1.3%) for 2020.
As of yesterday, the rule will give a permanent home infusion therapy which will start in 2021. Home infusion therapy is the administration of particular medication at the patients’ house through the use of equipment. The changes also include nursing, patient monitoring, and patient educating.
CMS is also modifying its regulations in order to allow therapists to do maintenance therapy, rather than just the therapists themselves. This will allow the assistants to use all of the skills under their license and make the entire process more efficient. This will also allow for more accurate pay to home health services, and more care for patient individuality rather than high-volume care. They are also going to address fraud by taking out pre-payments slowly over the next year for home health services, then eliminate them completely in 2021.