Public Policy Priorities
Realizing the full integration of home health, hospice and palliative care services into the continuum of care with appropriate reimbursement and reasonable regulation.
Home Health Services
Lsgislative Actions
- Home Health Reimbursement: Support the Home Health Payment Innovation Act (S. 433/H.R. 2573) to eliminate behavior assumption adjustments in the Patient-Driven Groupings Model.
- Medicare Home Health Prescribers: Support the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 296/H.R. 2160) to expand those who can order Medicare home health services to include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse-midwives, and physician assistants.
Administrative Actions
- Home Health PPS: Review and provide comments during the CY 2021 Medicare Home Health Prospective Payment System rulemaking process.
- IMPACT: Participate in the Medicare unified post-acute prospective payment system technical expert panel to provide the voice of VNAA members regarding possible future payment system design.
Hospice and Palliative Care
Legislative Actions
- Hospice Oversight: We support the Hospice Care Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 2807), which aims to improve the quality of care furnished by Medicare hospice programs through increased oversight, transparency, and education.
- Access to Telehealth: Support the CONNECT for HEALTH Act of 2019 (S. 2741/H.R. 4932) to amend Medicare to expand access to telehealth, including the provision that allows the hospice face-to-face recertification to take place via telehealth.
- Training in Palliative Care: Support the Palliative Care Education and Training Act (PCHETA; S. 2080/H.R. 647) which would provide professional training in palliative care and has passed the House.
- Palliative Care Access: Support the Provider Training in Palliative Care (S. 1821) to allow the definition of primary care provided by the National Health Service Corps to include palliative care services.
- Rural Health Clinics and Hospice: Support the Rural Access to Hospice Act (S. 1190/ H.R. 2594) to amend the Social Security Act to provide payments for certain rural health clinics and federally qualified health center services provided to hospice patients under Medicare.
- Older Americans Act Reauthorization: Support reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (H.R. 4334) to include provisions focused on serious illness.
- Advanced Illness Care: Support the Removing Barriers to Person Centered Care Act (S. 829) to award cooperative agreements to improve care for individuals with advanced illness.
- Physician Assistants: Seek a legislative fix to the statute that does not allow for PAs to provide face-to-face encounters. Provide clarity around the role of physician assistants in hospice.
- Integration of Hospice and Palliative Care into the Continuum of Aging Services: Seek legislative provisions that would enable such integration.
Administrative Actions
- HOPE Tool: Continue Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool development and assessment process engagement.
- Hospice Payment Rate Update Rule: Review and provide comments on the FY 2021 Medicare Hospice wage rule.