In This Issue:

- Medicare Releases Set of Payment Rules, Physician Fee Schedule on Deck

- Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

- Federal Regulatory Initiatives

- Congressional Initiatives

- Other Health Care News

- Upcoming Congressional Hearings

- Excerpt from Medicare Releases Set of Payment Rules, Physician Fee Schedule on Deck:

As is customary this time of the year, stakeholders have a series of proposed Medicare payment rules to contend with for the upcoming 2016 calendar year.

On Monday, July 6th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the CY 2016 Home Health Prospective Payment System proposed rule, which updates payments and requirements for home health agencies under the Medicare program. The rule proposes to cut the national, standardized 60-day episode payment rate in CY 2016 and CY 2017 by 1.72 percent each year. Further, it also implements a new value-based home health initiative that would require all home health agencies to participate in nine randomly selected states starting January 1, 2016. The model would apply a payment reduction or increase to current Medicare-certified home health agency payments, depending on quality performance.