April 21, 2023

CMS Reminder for HHAs RE: Rural Add-on Policy

On April 20, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a reminder on the rural add-on policy for home health agencies. Section 4137 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 extends the rural add-on policy by providing an increase of 1% of the payment amount made for home health services provided in the ‘‘low population density’’ category for CY 2023. An Office of Inspector General report issued last year found that data was lacking to analyze the effectiveness of the rural add-on policy because data was often missing on claims. CMS reminds home health agencies to continue to report value code 85 and an associated Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) state and county code on all claims. CMS referred providers to the Home Health Claims Processing Manual for more information.