Characteristics of Rural Home Health Users and Implications for Payment Reform (Final Report, March 2000)

This report addresses consequences for home health care services of payment reform initiated by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA). It assumes more resource-intensive Medicare patients to be at greater risk for reduction in access to home health care services under the Interim Payment System initiated by BBA. The report provides information on the relative resource intensity of home health users and insight on the extent to which access to home health services could be affected by payment reform. It includes tables, figures, and references.