Medicare Home Health: Encouraging Quality and Discouraging Abuse

While most home health agencies (HHAs) provide high-quality home healthcare and comply with Medicare policy, abusive and even fraudulent conduct by a minority of Medicare certified HHAs threatens the quality of patient care, drives up Medicare costs and undermines the perceived value of home healthcare.

The Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA), the official national association for Visiting Nurse Agencies (VNAs) and nonprofit, community-based home healthcare agencies (HHAs) prepared this paper to raise awareness among the general public and policymakers of the sources of fraud and abuse in the home healthcare field and to contribute useful suggestions for reform of the Medicare home health benefit. Recommendations for reform include changes in payment policy, Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoP), Medicare home health enrollment procedures, medical review and anti-kick back rules.

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View the Press Release distributed on March 3, 2009, click here.

Attention VNAA Members:
VNAA members can access frequently asked questions related to the "Medicare Home Health: Encouraging Quality and Discouraging Abuse" document. Click Here!

Questions and comments, please contact:
Emma McMahon
Visiting Nurse Associations of America
Director of Advocacy Programs
202-384-1455
emcmahon@vnaa.org

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