NAHC Report

The news is full of stories about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days, debating his accomplishments and comparing the tenure to that of past presidents. At NAHC, we’re more concerned with how home care and hospice has done during the past 100 days – what has been accomplished and what remains to be done.

NAHC is pleased to report that we have some good news and some news that isn’t bad so much as just expected. Considerable progress has been made on advancing some of our critical issues, both in the legislative and regulatory realms. For example:

• The CMS issued a proposed rule to extend the effective date for the home health Conditions of Participation (HHCoPS) from July 13, 2017 to January 13, 2018;
• The CMS suspended the pre-claim review demonstration in Illinois and indefinitely postponed it in Florida and elsewhere;
• Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act (HR 1825 / S 445), which would allow Nurse Practitioners, Advanced Practice Nurses, and Physician Assistants to sign Medicare home health care plans, has been introduced in the House of Representatives and picked up new sponsors in the Senate;
• The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (S 693 / HR 1676) was introduced in Congress;
• Legislation to improve rural access to hospice (HR 1828) has been introduced in the House of Representatives;
• Legislation to extend the Medicare home health rural add-on (S 353) has picked up support in the Senate.