Medicare program; home health prospective payment system rate update for calendar year 2005. Final rule.

This final rule sets forth an update to the 60-day national episode rates and the national per-visit amounts under the Medicare prospective payment system for home health agencies. As part of this final rule, we are also rebasing and revising the home health market basket to ensure it continues to adequately reflect the price changes of efficiently providing home health services. In addition, we are revising the fixed dollar loss ratio, which is used in the calculation of outlier payments. This final rule will be the first update of the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) rates on a calendar year update cycle. HH PPS was moved to a calendar year update cycle as a result of the provisions of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.