Medicare and Medicaid programs; schedule of limits on home health agency costs per visit--HCFA. Final notice with comment period.

This notice sets forth a schedule of limits on home health agency (HHA) costs that may be reimbursed under the Medicare program. We are revising the limits to take into account more recent data and the effects of inflation, and to implement section 105 of Pub. L. 97-248, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1962. Limits are established by type of service and are expressed as costs per visit. Although we have established separate limits by type of service, we are applying them to each home health agency as a single "aggregate" limit, based on the agency's number of visits for each type of service. This schedule applies to HHA costs for the entire cost reporting period which begins on or after September 3, 1982. It replaces the current schedule that was published in the Federal Register on September 30, 1981 (46 FR 48020).