Raleigh, NC –
Well Care Health has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding its Calendar Year 2026 Home Health Proposed Rule. By doing so, they join more than 952,000 other organizations and individuals, including the National Alliance for Care at Home and Homecare Homebase, who have participated in the federal comment process.
Well Care’s comment letter shares the perspective of a family-owned and operated provider with 37+ years of operating experience in home-based care and highlights significant and urgent concerns about the proposed payment cuts. Well Care emphasizes the direct and foreseeable negative impacts these cuts would have on the patients and communities it serves across the Carolinas.
The home health benefit is a vital component of the healthcare continuum, directly addressing patient care needs through services such as nursing and therapy in a low-cost care setting, where patients overwhelmingly prefer to receive care. Home health drives value-based outcomes and saves the Medicare program expenditures by enabling patients to avoid unnecessary utilization of far-more-costly care settings such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), emergency departments, and hospital readmissions. Without adequate access to home health services, patients would alternatively be subjected to longer hospital length of stays, elevated hospital readmission rates, increased SNF utilization, and foregone needed care. For this reason, home health serves as an instrumental value-based care driver for the Medicare program and other payers – supporting the clear need for legislation and regulation that strengthens and reinforces home-based care, rather than destabilizing it.
Specifically, Well Care’s comments highlight the following points for CMS to consider:
1. The Proposed Rule’s substantial reimbursement cuts are disconnected from the reality of delivering home health services in the current operating environment.
2. Significant continued shifts in wage index values drive operational uncertainty and contribute to the destabilization of the home health benefit.
3. The Proposed Rule threatens to diminish essential patient access to home health services, especially for already-underserved populations such as rural and higher-acuity patients.
4. The Proposed Rule’s payment cuts would foreseeably have the counterproductive and negative impact of increasing overall Medicare program expenditures.
5. The Proposed Rule suffers from significant flaws in its methodology.
6. Well Care has multiple points of feedback in relation to the Proposed Rule’s updates to the HHVBP, HHQRP, and other proposed regulatory changes.
As an independent, family-owned provider with a patient census of 5,000 and a strong reputation as a national leader in quality of care, Well Care’s insights are crucial for CMS to consider. Well Care is committed to advocating for the home health industry and will continue to make its voice heard on behalf of its employees, patients, and the communities it serves.
Alongside these Comments and Well Care’s other advocacy efforts, we invite others to share their perspective and make their voices heard on these important issues facing the Home Health benefit.
