Lower Medicare Payments May Limit Growth of Home Health Agencies in Some Rural Counties

When rural add-on payments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were lower, the availability of home health agencies grew more slowly in rural counties that are distant from urban counties than in urban counties, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in Health Affairs. Home healthcare is a critical resource in rural counties, where senior populations are growing faster than in urban counties, authors noted. Since 2001, federal statutes have intermittently provided higher-than-standard payments to home health agencies in rural areas to ensure service availability. Researchers’ analysis of data from CMS and Home Health Compare showed no significant difference in home health agencies per capita between urban counties and adjacent rural communities between 2002 and 2017. However, among rural counties not adjacent to urban counties, only add-on payments of 5 percent or 10 percent kept the availability of home health services on pace with urban counties, researchers concluded. Access the abstract.