On Friday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced  changes to Medicare home health payments for 2011. According to a news release from CMS, the changes will "promote efficiency in payments, implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and enhance program integrity.

The proposed rule represents a 4.75 percent decrease in Medicare payments to home health agencies (HHAs) for calendar year (CY) 2011. This is an estimated net decrease of $900 million compared to payments HHAs received in CY 2010. It includes the combined effects of a market basket update, a wage index update, reductions to the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) rates to account for increases in aggregate case-mix that are unrelated to underlying changes in patients’ health status, and other provisions mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010."

For more information, visit the CMS website. This rule will be published in the July 22 Federal Register. A copy of the notice is available on the CMS website.