OCTOBER 2000 PRESS RELEASE
Medicare's Prospective Payment System Implemented Last Week
Jacksonville, OR (October 11th, 2000): With a potentially huge impact on billing procedures for U.S. home health agencies, the goal of Medicare’s Prospective Payment System (PPS) is to ensure that reimbursement by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA; Baltimore MD) pays for "efficient home health care" (Medicare News Press Release, June 28, 2000). According to information from the National Association For Home Care (NAHC; Washington D.C.), there are an estimated 8.0 million individuals in the United States who require home services for acute illness, long-term health conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness.
To evaluate the transition from a cost-based structure to PPS, home care providers involved in a HCFA demonstration project were able to become familiar with the system over an extended period of time. At other agencies, administrators must rely on copies of the regulations and manuals to prepare for the changes. To informally assess this situation, a random survey of 12 home health agencies operating in Oregon was made last week by Feedback Research Services. Among the four that serve Medicare patients, all were aware of PPS but affected to different degrees by the new policy, depending upon whether or not billing was done at the agency or a corporate office.
The big question for providers is how to continue to deliver quality care with a reduced amount of reimbursement. Within the health care industry, some participants believe that PPS could be a catalyst to support more widespread use of home monitoring and telemedicine technologies. Because patients receive services in their homes, visiting nurses spend a great deal of time on the road, a factor that can limit amount of care being provided on a daily basis. Remote monitoring and telemedicine have been proposed as ways to supplement in-person visits, with real-time video interactions that are initiated by health providers or the patients themselves.
A new 110-page report from Feedback Research Services describes the potential impact of PPS on the home care monitoring and telemedicine markets, including preliminary revenue forecasts for sales in 2000. Operational perspectives are also summarized, based on interviews conducted with home health agencies and telemedicine program administrators. For more information about this report, contact us at 541-899-8088 or info@feed-back.com.
