August 31 2026
OASIS Answers
Categories: HHQRP

What Home Health Agencies Need to Know About H.R. 8883

by Kerry Termine, DPT, HCS-D, COS-C, CHS-C

On May 19, 2026, H.R. 8883 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, proposing to increase the Annual Payment Update reduction for home health agencies that fail to meet applicable quality-reporting requirements from 2 percentage points to 15 percentage points.

Currently, home health agencies (HHAs) are required to submit OASIS and HHCAHPS data as part of the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HH QRP) requirements. The APU is the annual update to the Medicare payment rates applicable to HHAs that meet these requirements.

If an HHA has served 60 or more survey-eligible patients during the applicable 12-month reference period, it must participate in the HHCAHPS Survey to receive its full APU. This includes having an approved survey vendor administer the survey continuously and submit an HHCAHPS data file for each required month.

For the OASIS QRP requirement related to the APU, an HHA must achieve a quality-reporting compliance rate of at least 90% under the Quality Assessments Only methodology. Currently, only OASIS data from Medicare and Medicaid patients are included in this calculation. Beginning with non-Medicare and non-Medicaid patients who receive skilled home health services and have an OASIS SOC M0090 date of January 1, 2027, or later, CMS intends to include applicable all-payer OASIS data in this requirement.

Failure to submit the required quality data in a program year results in a reduction of the HHA’s APU for the corresponding calendar year by 2 percentage points.

Please reference the CMS Home Health Quality Reporting Requirements webpage for more details.

H.R. 8883 and APU

In May of this year, a bill titled the Protecting Seniors and Stopping Fraudsters Act (H.R. 8883) was introduced in the House of Representatives. The proposed bill includes changing the APU payment reduction from 2 percentage points to 15 percentage points. This means that HHAs that fail to submit their required OASIS and HHCAHPS data could potentially be subject to an APU reduction of as much as 15 percentage points.

More information can be found in the text of H.R. 8883.

Legislative status: As of the time of publishing, the House Ways and Means Committee has ordered H.R. 8883 favorably reported to the House of Representatives, as amended. The bill has not received a vote by the full House and has not become law.