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Congresswoman Debbie Dingell sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Director Mehmet Oz, MD, in response to a final rule that will reduce payment of the Medicare home health benefit, constraining the ability for seniors to receive much-needed in-home care.

In her letter, Dingell requests a meeting with Administrator Oz to discuss how CMS and Congress can work together to support Medicare beneficiaries who rely on the home health benefit, as well as strengthen home care services across the country more broadly.

“In 2021, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Home Health Quality Reporting Program found that approximately 3 million Medicare beneficiaries utilized home health care. These services enable individuals to receive care in their own homes and communities, which research shows is the preferred option for many patients,” Dingell said. “CMS issued a final rule that includes policies that would result in about a 1.3% payment reduction of the home health benefit for 2026. While this is a smaller reduction than was initially proposed, reducing payments to home health agencies (HHAs) by any amount is unacceptable. These payment cuts would not only be disastrous, but they also do not align with CMS’ intent to ensure budget neutral payment rates, given that total Medicare home health expenditures have declined year-over-year.”

"Access to home health care enables seniors and individuals with disabilities to receive the specialized care that allows them to safely transition from the hospital to the home. This benefit is often cost-saving, more convenient for patients and their families, and allows patients to receive quality care in-line with what they would receive in a hospital or a skilled nursing facility,” Dingell continues. “An analysis from the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare found that the mortality rate and emergency room admission rate for patients not receiving timely access to this care is increasing annually, in line with cuts that are growing annually.”

“I urge you to work with Congress and home health providers to ensure that funds directed to the home health benefit are used to improve the program for beneficiaries, including by addressing mortality and emergency room admission rates, rejections of home health referrals, and barriers to home care in rural areas,” Dingell concludes. “Further cuts to this system will be devastating. We must work together to improve, modernize, and expand access to the home health benefit for patients, providers, and their families.”

View the full text of the letter here.