Revise the existing definition of “infusion drug administration calendar day” to allow for reimbursement of home infusion professional services each day that an infusion drug physically enters the patient’s body, irrespective of whether a skilled professional is in the individual’s home. As the permanent benefit is now well underway, Premier also urged CMS to assess available data, such as utilization rates and dollars spent on the benefit, to ensure the agency’s interpretation of infusion drug administration calendar day is truly meeting Congress’ expectations as laid out in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-123) and the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 (Pub. L. 114-255).
Enhance efforts to develop standards and measures for data exchange and sharing across all care settings, including post-acute care. Premier underscored how the transfer of information between home health agencies and other providers most often occurs via cumbersome and resource-intensive manual processes. CMS also needs to consider ways to incentivize HHAs and other PAC providers to more readily adopt health IT in support of wider efforts to standardize patient data, improve care quality, and reduce costs.
