The Effect of New Medicare Reimbursement Methodologies on Rural Home Health Agencies and Their Beneficiaries
Center for Rural Pennsylvania
03/01/01 - 04/30/02
Lisa A. Davis, Office of Rural Health
The proposed project analyzed the effects of the Interim Payment and Prospective Payment Systems (instituted via the Balanced Budget Act of 1997) on the Commonwealth's rural health care providers and beneficiaries. These systems changed home health agencies' reimbursement for Medicare services. The study involved examining the financial status of rural home health agencies pre- and post-implementation of these systems, identifying the most vulnerable agencies and communities and any patterns to this vulnerability, describing how agencies coped with these changes, and determining how these changes affected beneficiaries.