Reminder for Home Health Rural Add-On Policy. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 extended the rural add-on policy by providing a 1 percent payment increase for home health services provided in the ‘‘low population density’’ category for Calendar Year (CY) 2023. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is reminding home health agencies that they must submit county codes on all home health prospective payment system claims. Home health agencies should continue to report value code 85 and an associated Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) state and county code on all claims. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report in December 2022 noting that the lack of FIPS codes on claims made it difficult to analyze utilization of the rural add-on, which is critical to ongoing advocacy for the yearly payment. Providers using the home health rural add-on should review the Home Health Claims Processing Manual for more information on how to properly report FIPS codes.

Hospice Quality Reporting Program Quarterly Update for Fourth Quarter of 2022 Available. The Hospice Quarterly Update for the fourth quarter of 2022 is now available. This update includes Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) highlights from October to December 2022, events and engagement opportunities for the first quarter of 2023 (January to March 2023), and selected questions and answers from the Hospice Quality Help Desk.

LeadingAge Provides Hospice Program Integrity Recommendations to Congress and CMS. LeadingAge, in partnership with other national hospice associations, recently provided CMS and key congressional stakeholders with 34 recommendations grouped into 11 core issue areas to improve hospice program integrity. The press release, article, and full list of recommendations can be accessed below. LeadingAge would like to thank all the members who provided feedback on these recommendations.

• Press Release: National Hospice Leaders Urge CMS and Congress to Advance Program Integrity in Hospice Care through Effective Oversight
• Article: LeadingAge Provides Hospice Program Integrity Recommendations to Congress and CMS
• Recommendations: Hospice Program Integrity Ideas – Hospice Industry Consensus

Free COVID-19 Rapid Test Kits for Home Care and Hospice Providers. All LeadingAge providers and communities are able to obtain a weekly supply of COVID-19 rapid test kits through LeadingAge’s ordering portal. Providers should note that orders are not recurring.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the LeadingAge test ordering website are available now. To help aging services providers navigate utilization of the LeadingAge test ordering website, staff asked a number of FAQs of HHS and wrote them up for those ordering tests.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871