When it comes to payment, there are generally two issues that are drawing the ire of home health providers of late: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule for CY 2023 and subpar Medicare Advantage (MA) rates.
A third one has been added to that list: the role of conveners.
As with most issues in home health care, it bubbled below the surface for a while, then someone finally said it aloud. Now, it’s formed somewhat of a movement.
It started with LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) CEO Keith Myers on the first day of National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s (NAHC) Financial Management Conference. He pointed out that he thinks conveners – or “middlemen” – are the real problem in the MA-home health provider relationship.
Two days later, a home health operator posed a question to a panel of experts: “These intermediaries, these companies that tell managed care how to save money by denying care, and then take a layer of the revenue for that service – are they not worse for us than the Medicare Advantage plans themselves?”
There was a pause.
“Is that a rhetorical question?” one expert responded.
Since then, I’ve spoken with both home health operators and conveners to get a better idea on just how pervasive this convener issue is in home health care. And that’s the topic of today’s members-only, exclusive HHCN+ Update.
Sign up for HHCN + to read this exclusive content.
Need more than 5 members? Contact us for more information.
* per member
Already a member?
The post Exploring Home Health Care’s ‘Convener Problem’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.
