TMWhat the New Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Report Means for Payment
CMS posted the preliminary home health value-based purchasing report in iQIES on October 1. This is the Calendar Year 2026 Annual Performance Report for the expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing model. It shows an eligible agency's annual payment percentage from Calendar Year 2025 performance, and that percentage is set to apply to Medicare fee-for-service claims with through dates in Calendar Year 2027. If the file is still unopened, the number that matters is the percentage in your own report, not a summary passed along a thread.
LeadingAge flagged the release on October 2 and named the dates that still move: a reconsideration request is due October 16, and a request for CMS Administrator review is due November 5. OASIS Answers spelled out the gate. Reconsideration is for agencies that already submitted a recalculation request and disagree with that decision. Agencies that missed the September 4 recalculation window cannot open a fresh recalculation on this preliminary report. CMS lists the reports as available now in iQIES. The model page still describes a payment-year adjustment as an applicable percent from a 5 percent decrease to a 5 percent increase on Medicare fee-for-service payments. This preliminary file is also the first annual report in the expanded model to use the Calendar Year 2025 measure set: three OASIS measures, two claims measures, and five HHCAHPS survey measures, including discharge function, potentially preventable hospitalization, and willingness to recommend.
What to check in the home health value-based purchasing report
Open it with the person who owns quality and the person who owns billing in the same sitting. Confirm whether the agency was in scope: Medicare-certified before January 1, 2024, enough data for at least five measures to build a total performance score, and a prior-year payment amount. Read the annual payment percentage before debating single measure scores. Then note which measures actually fed the score. A missed survey threshold or claims threshold can change the story even when the clinical year felt solid. If a recalculation was filed, compare the decision note to this preliminary version and decide before October 16 whether reconsideration is worth it. If not, treat the percentage as the working number and brief leadership on what Calendar Year 2027 fee-for-service cash is pointed toward.
CareSync® does not calculate that payment percentage, and it does not replace iQIES. It can keep planned-versus-completed visit visibility readable so the same leaders are not also guessing whether the week's visits matched the plan. That question is separate from HHVBP scoring. Alongside the day-to-day board, an invite-only circle for home health professionals is being built, hopefully as a quieter room to compare how reports like this actually land in operations. There is no public name or date yet.
Name one owner for the preliminary report. Save the file, write down the annual payment percentage, and note whether October 16 still applies. CMS makes the final report available after reconsideration and Administrator review are processed, and no later than 30 days before the payment adjustment takes effect on January 1, 2027. Understand the preliminary number now. Do not leave it until winter.