CMS to boost pay for home health, hospital outpatient services next year

CMS to boost pay for home health, hospital outpatient services next year


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is boosting payment for home health and hospital outpatient services and reducing reimbursement for physicians next year, according to a trio of rules published Tuesday.

Medicare home health payment rates will increase by 2.6%, which is expected to increase payments by $465 million. Hospital-owned outpatient and ambulatory surgery center payment rates will each increase by 2%.

The CMS will reduce the physician fee schedule conversation factor $1.30 to $33.59 as the temporary reimbursement boost provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act expires.

But the agency is expanding reimbursement for telehealth services that treat mental health issues.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the gaps in our current health care system and the need for new solutions to bring treatments to patients, wherever they are,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a news release. “This is especially true for people who need behavioral health services, and the improvements we are enacting will give people greater access to telehealth and other care delivery options.”

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