NOW AVAILABLE: The CY 2027 Home Health Final Rule

by Megan Bernier, MSPT RAC-CT CHS-C COS-C

On November 4, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Rate Update final rule.

This finalized proposed rule updates to the CY 2027 HHA Medicare payment rates, Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HHQRP) requirements, and other Medicare policies. There were no proposals related to the expanded HHVBP Model.

The following highlights are the proposed updates to the HHQRP.

Finalized Changes: HH QRP

Revised HHQRP data submission deadlines:

CMS is finalized that, beginning with the CY 2027 HHQRP, HHAs would be required to complete their data submission and make corrections to their OASIS assessment data, where necessary, no later than the 15th day of the second month after the end of the calendar quarter.

They clarify that if the 15th day of the second month falls on a Friday, weekend, or Federal holiday, the date would be delayed to the next business day. As finalized, the data correction timeframes for data collected in 2027 are the following:

Revised HHQRP OASIS and HHCHPAS Annual Payment Update (APU) reporting timeframe

CMS finalized revisions of the OASIS and HHCAHPS APU data reporting timeframe to a calendar year instead of the current timeframe which is July 1st through June 30th. This transition will occur with the 2028 APU.

Additionally, CMS finalized the proposal that the APU data reporting timeframe used to determine the HHQRP 2028 APU would be shortened to accommodate this change.

OASIS APU Date Timeframe

The 2028 APU determination will be based on six months of OASIS data, specifically July 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026.

The 2029 APU will be the first iteration in which the APU timeframe would be based on the calendar year, January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2027.

HHACHPS APU Data Timeframe

The 2028 APU determination will be based on nine months of HHCAHPS data, specifically April 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026.

The 2029 HHCAHPS data reporting timeframe will be the first iteration in which the APU timeframe would be based on the calendar year, January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2027.

Finaly, related to APU, CMS has finalized the proposal that HHAs that do not meet the quality reporting requirements for a program year will receive a notification of noncompliance via the CMS designated data submission system only.

HH QRP and HHVBP Alignment

While there were no proposals in this year’s rule related to HH QRP and HHVBP alignment, the final rule summarizes potential initiatives to improve alignments between the HH QRP and the expanded HHVBP Model.

Opportunities for potential alignment include:

• Increasing alignment in expanded HHVBP Model and HH QRP Quality of Patient Care (QoPC) Star Ratings measure sets.
• Aligning HH QRP and expanded HHVBP Model measure reporting periods.
• Aligning HH QRP APU and expanded HHVBP Model annual payment reporting periods.
• Aligning expanded HHVBP Model Interim Performance and HH QRP QoPC Star Rating Reports.
• Aligning timeframe of appeals/suppression review processes for the expanded HHVBP Model and HH QRP.

Updating scoring methodology to incorporate HH QRP APU penalties in the expanded HHVBP Model payment adjustments and factoring HH QRP Quality Assessments Only (QAO) values into QoPC Star Ratings scoring.

Read the complete text of the CY 2027 Home Health Final Rule.

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