Medicare Home Health Quality Incentives Reduced Costs & Utilization

States that implemented the original U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) model resulted in a 6.9% decrease (0.34 percentage points) in skilled nursing facility (SNF) use, compared with the 4.9% baseline average. There was also an association between HHVBP and a $2.17 reduction in average Medicare payments per day, which corresponded to an average annual Medicare savings of $190 million. States that implemented HHVBP also saw a 1% decrease in unplanned hospitalizations when compared with a 15.7% baseline.

Medicare’s home health care benefit covers skilled . . .