Important

On October 1, 2000, Medicare started a new payment system for Home Health Agencies. The informational booklet you are about to see is being updated to include new information as a result of this change. Here are some important things to know about the new payment system:

• The new payment system doesn’t change the home health services that are covered by Medicare.
  
  
• In some cases home health agencies will get paid more for their services than they were paid in the past. Sometimes, they may get less. A home health agency still has the right to decide whether or not to accept any individual patient.
  
  
• If a home health agency denies, cuts back, or stops your care, because it believes that Medicare will not pay for home health care services that a doctor has ordered for you, the agency must give you a Home Health Advance Beneficiary Notice (HHABN). The HHABN should:

• explain why the agency thinks that Medicare will not pay for the services,
  
  
• explain that you may have to pay for the services if Medicare does not pay for them, and
  
  
• give clear directions for getting official decision from Medicare and for appealing that decision if payment is denied.

Continue to the Home Health booklet (Adobe PDF) (size: 564 KB)

Date Last Updated: March 04, 2003