What The Election Result Means For Home-Based Care Providers

Home Health Care News / By Andrew Donlan
 
Donald Trump will take over the presidency again in January. There will be many implications for home-based care providers, and details from Trump’s first presidency will help project those.

In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 election, Trump and Kamala Harris battled over home-based care. Specifically, Harris suggested a personal home care benefit under Medicare, while Trump’s campaign focused on economic points that it claimed would make home care more affordable, expanded benefits under Medicare Advantage (MA) and better telehealth access. 

But Medicare Advantage (MA) and telehealth are far from the most important changes that home-based care providers could see under the next Trump administration. 

A lesser focus on antitrust initiatives should be expected, clearing the way for larger deals like UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) takeover of Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED). Home health reimbursement may even be affected, as well as home care reimbursement under Medicaid. 

In the months leading up to it, home-based care providers often described this election as “pivotal.” Some will like the changes that take place over the next four years, and others won’t. But all of those projected changes are worth taking a look at. 

“A lot can happen based on what happens in this election, in terms of the future of not only home- and community-based services, but also Medicare and anything health care oriented,” Dave Totaro, the chief government affairs officer at Bayada Home Health Care, told me on stage at the FUTURE conference earlier this year. 

In this week’s exclusive, members-only HHCN+ Update, I forecast what Trump’s win may mean for home health and home care providers across the country…

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The CY 2025 Home Health Final Rule: Impacts That Will Shape Your Agency's Future

November 20, 2024 (11:00 a.m. MT)

Presented by Cindy Campbell, MHA-Healthcare Informatics, BSN, RN, COQS, CCS-HH, Senior Director, Advisory Services, WellSky

On Friday, November 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its calendar year (CY) 2025 home health final rule which finalizes an increase in payments to home health providers of 0.5%, or $85 million, compared to CY 2024. However, CMS also finalized a permanent payment adjustment of -1.975% to rebalance the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and make it budget neutral. This is the third straight year of payment cuts to home health providers, which raises concerns about the impact on the home health industry and access to patient care.

As 2024 comes to a close, there is a lot to learn for a successful 2025. Join home health industry regulatory expert and advocate, Cindy Campbell, MHA-Healthcare Informatics, BSN, RN, COQS, CCS-HH, for an important webinar that will provide in-depth coverage of the final rule and how it will affect your home health agency’s future.

You'll learn more about these key elements of the final rule:

• Payment rate cuts and adjustments
  
  
• Updates to the CoPs, including a new standard for home health providers to match the most appropriate provider to their patients
  
  
• Updates to LUPAs to better match recent changes in payment policies and ensuring fair reimbursement for low-utilization home health cases
  
  
• Updates to the OASIS-E1 data elements
  
  

Now is the time to ensure you and your team understand these payment and regulatory changes. Be proactive as you make plans to ensure your agency’s success in 2025. This webinar will help you do just that!

Register

Trump Nominates RFK Jr. to Lead HHS

Healthcare Dive / By Sydney Halleman

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated vaccine skeptic and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the HHS in a controversial decision that’s expected to draw ire from some public health experts.

Trump announced the appointment on social media platform Truth Social.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote Thursday.

His role as secretary of the HHS would give him oversight over a budget of nearly $2 billion and agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the CMS, which is responsible for administering federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Kennedy has previously promised to overhaul the federal public health industry. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy wrote in October in a post on X.

Most recently, Kennedy stated he wanted to eliminate fluoride in the country’s water supply, a decision that would upend one of the nation’s largest public health initiatives. Over social media, Kennedy has also criticized what he calls an epidemic of “chronic disease,” including autism, obesity and diabetes.

Originally a candidate for president, Kennedy endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race in August. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to let Kennedy “go wild” on healthcare.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would succeed the Biden administration’s Secretary Xavier Becerra.

New Congress Brings Churn in Health Policy Leadership

Roll Call / By Sandhya Raman

House Energy and Commerce, Senate Finance, to see dramatic shifts in health policy players
 
Congress’ most influential health panels will see dramatic changes next year, with several advocates on specific issues like mental health, Medicare and drug pricing retiring or losing their reelection bids. 

The biggest changes will be in store at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose wide-ranging jurisdiction includes health insurance, biomedical research, and drug 
and device safety.

Five of the 12 Democrats on the Health Subcommittee will not be returning: Ranking member Anna G. Eshoo of California and Reps. John Sarbanes of Maryland, Tony Cárdenas of California and Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire did not seek reelection this year. And Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware was elected to the Senate.

Eshoo was active in Democrats’ efforts to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs under Medicare and has pushed for increasing biomedical research and expanding access to health insurance. Cárdenas has been a proponent of the three-digit 988 suicide hotline and helped found the Bipartisan House 988 and Crisis Services Task Force.

Republicans will see at least four fewer familiar faces: Former Health Subcommittee Chair Michael C. Burgess of Texas and Larry Bucshon and Greg Pence of Indiana will retire at the end of this year. Full Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is also retiring. Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ race has not yet been called, though she currently holds a narrow lead.

Rodgers has led the committee on oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she unveiled a framework to overhaul the National Institutes of Health with Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., earlier this year.

She’s been an advocate on disability rights issues and a co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Down Syndrome…

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