CMS releases CY2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule, Including Expansion of Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Program (HHVBP) Nationwide

From the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation

Late this afternoon, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY 2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate Update proposed rule.

The proposed rule seeks to expand HHVBP nationwide to all 50 states plus the District of Columbia beginning January 1, 2022. In 2018, the Alliance awarded a grant to Columbia University and the RAND Corporation to look at the impacts of policy changes, including those of the HHVBP program. Stay tuned for more information on the work produced by the grant upcoming shortly.

Additionally, the proposed rule updates payment rates and proposes to maintain the CY2021 LUPA thresholds for CY2022. Further updates to the HH Quality Reporting Program (QRP), Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility QRP, and Long-Term Care Hospital QRP are also included, along with making permanent selected regulatory blanket waivers for home health aide supervision that were made available to HH agencies during COVID-19.

A fact sheet on the proposed rule from CMS is available here.

The Alliance will once again be submitting comments to CMS on the proposed rule. We will be coordinating with our members over the next two months. If you are interested in discussing the proposed rule, members are encouraged to reach out to Alliance Executive Director Jennifer Schiller at [email protected].