The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is preparing to finalize the Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HHPPS) rule, which includes the largest single-year cut since the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) began in 2020. If adopted, the rule would reduce Medicare payments by $1.135 billion — a net reduction of 6.4% — and closer to a 9% gross cut once all adjustments are factored in.

Why Your Voice Matters

Access to home health is already shrinking. Nearly 39% of patients referred to home health after hospitalization never receive it due to workforce shortages. For those patients, hospital readmissions rise by 35%, emergency department use by 16%, mortality by 43%, and Medicare spending by 5.4%.

Medicare home health spending has already dropped more than 12% since 2019, and more than 1,000 agencies have closed nationwide — including 144 in Florida in the past year. Additional cuts will accelerate these closures and make access even harder.

What to Include in Your Comment

Keep your comment personal and local:

• Briefly describe your agency (mission, services, and communities served).
• Explain how the cuts will affect your ability to accept referrals, start care promptly, and retain staff.
• Share patient consequences you are already seeing (missed visits, referral denials, avoidable emergency department use).
• Ask CMS to rescind the cuts, correct past market basket errors, and base payment adjustments on actual provider data.

Take Action Quickly & Easily

HCAF's Legislative Action Center makes submitting comments straightforward. The platform works like an interview: you answer prompts such as your agency name, patient census, and service area, then add details about your challenges (e.g., operational, workforce, etc.). The system builds your comment as you go, so you do not have to start from scratch.

We've created multiple modular templates with different text bodies so that comments are not identical. If you want to try another version, refresh the page, use a private browser, or switch browsers.

Resources to Help You

• Watch the webinar recording, Make Your Voice Heard: Taking Action Against CMS’s Proposed Home Health Cuts (below). A free 30-minute overview of the rule and how to submit a strong comment.
• Access background materials, including fact sheets, data, and slides from our national partners (see "Learn More").
• Submit your comment through the Legislative Action Center before the Friday afternoon deadline.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE & SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS