Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Preserving Access to Home Health Care Act of 2023 on June 22. The bill would repeal the requirement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) make determinations related to the impact of behavior changes on estimated aggregate expenditures and would eliminate CMS’s authority to adjust home health payments based on such determinations under Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). This change would take effect and be implemented as if it were included in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 that included home health provisions leading to PDGM implementation. LeadingAge supports this legislation.

Additionally, the bill instructs the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to review and report on aggregate trends under Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and other payers and consider the impact of all payers on access to care for Medicare home health beneficiaries. The Commission would be required to make its calculations public. This provision would also add requirements for Medicare home health cost reports to include data on visit utilization and total payments by program to facilitate this MedPAC analysis.