Medicare Program; Schedules of Per-Visit and Per-Beneficiary Limitations on Home Health Agency Costs for Cost Reporting Periods Beginning on or After October 1, 1998; Correction

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Care Financing Administration

[HCFA-1035-CN]

RIN 0938-AI13

Medicare Program; Schedules of Per-Visit and Per-Beneficiary

Limitations on Home Health Agency Costs for Cost Reporting Periods

Beginning on or After October 1, 1998; Correction

AGENCY: Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), HHS.

ACTION: Correction of notice with comment period.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In the August 11, 1998 issue of the Federal Register (63 FR

42912), we published a notice with comment period setting forth revised

schedules of limitations on home health agency costs that may be paid

under the Medicare program for cost reporting periods beginning on or

after October 1, 1998. This document corrects technical and

typographical errors made in that document.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cathy Johnson, (410) 786-5241.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

In the August 11, 1998 notice, we announced the limitations for

home health agencies for cost reporting periods beginning on or after

October 1, 1998, including the per-visit limitations. In publishing

table 3A, Type of Visits, setting forth the per-visit limitations by

type, we inadvertently transposed the MSA and non-MSA cost limit

numbers. This document corrects that error. The inadvertent

transposition of these cost limits resulted in the need to correct the

examples and tables that rely on the limits. This document corrects the

examples and tables and corrects other technical and typographical

errors. Therefore, we are making the following corrections:

Correction of Errors

1. On page 42923, in column 3, the last six lines are corrected to

read as follows:

a. Urban skilled nursing per-visit labor portion

$74.13 x 1.0145693 = $75.21

b. Urban skilled nursing per-visit nonlabor portion

$20.84 x 1.0145693 = $21.14

2. On page 42924, in the chart entitled ``Computation of Revised

Per-visit for Occupational Therapy,'' in line 1,

`` $123.05'' is corrected to read ``$108.10,'' and, in line 3,

``$123.94'' is corrected to read ``$108.88.''

3. On page 42924, in the chart entitled ``Computation of Revised

Per-Beneficiary Limitations for an HHA With a 1994 Base Period'', in

the last line, ``$5,521.72'' is corrected to read ``5,421.72''.

4. On page 42925, the chart entitled ``Determining the Aggregate

Per-Visit Limitation'' is corrected in its entirety to read as follows:

Determining The Aggregate Per-Visit Limitation

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Per-visit

Area/type of visit visits limit (\1\) Total limit

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dallas-MSA:

Skilled nursing.............. 11,550 94.93 1,096,442

Physical therapy............. 4,300 107.21 461,003

Home health aide............. 8,900 43.83 389,998

Rural Texas:

Skilled nursing.............. 5,000 87.18 435,900

Physical therapy............. 2,300 97.68 224,664

Home health aide............. 4,300 36.41 156,563

--------------------------------------

Aggregate limitation..... ........... ........... 2,764,570

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(\1\) The per-visit has been adjusted by the appropriate wage-index and

the budget neutrality adjustment factor of 1.03.

[[Page 57699]]

5. On page 42925 Table 3A is corrected in its entirety to read as

follows:

Table 3A.--Per-Visit Limitations Type of Visit

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Per-visit Labor Nonlabor

limitation portion portion

------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSA (NECMA) location:

Skilled nursing care............. $ 94.97 $74.13 $20.84

Physical therapy................. 107.26 83.56 23.70

Speech therapy................... 107.97 83.99 23.98

Occupational therapy............. 108.15 84.05 24.10

Medical social services.......... 130.69 101.38 29.31

Home health aide................. 43.84 34.21 9.63

NonMSA location:

Skilled nursing care............. 108.17 88.44 19.73

Physical therapy................. 121.14 98.82 22.32

Speech therapy................... 126.52 103.01 23.51

Occupational therapy............. 123.10 99.81 23.29

Medical social services.......... 167.78 136.78 31.00

Home health aide................. 45.16 36.88 8.28

------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. On page 42926, in Table 3A, under the heading ``Location'' the

following corrections are made:

a. In column 1, line 3, ``County of Hawaii'' is corrected to read

``County of Honolulu''.

b. In column 2, line 5, ``1.2225'' is corrected to read ``1.225''.

7. On page 42935, in the chart entitled ``Impact of the IPS HHA

Limits, Effective 10/1/98'', the number ``12.3'' is moved from the

first column to the last column of the previous line.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program No. 93.773

Medicare--Hospital Insurance)

Dated: October 9, 1998.

Michael W. Carleton,

Acting Deputy Assistant for Information Resources Management.

[FR Doc. 98-28839 Filed 10-27-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4120-01-P