As your constituent and a member of the home-based care community, I am writing to urge you to support and cosponsor S.5250, the Medicare Home Health Payment Integrity and Protection Act of 2026.
This important piece of legislation will provide core payment integrity reforms by correcting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) flaws in calculating Medicare rate updates, while also streamlining program integrity measures to target fraud concerns early, stopping bad actors from entering the Medicare program. Critically, this legislation does not rely on sweeping enforcement strategies which risk further restricting access to care for Medicare beneficiaries and causing unintended harm to legitimate providers.
The Medicare Home Health Payment Integrity and Protect Act seeks to restore the Medicare home health rate to what it would have been without consecutive years of compounding cuts. Those cuts were built on data entirely unrelated to the payment system adopted in 2020, along with data tainted by the inclusion of fraudulent providers in the rate analysis. This is an important step in modernizing the home health benefit, ensuring that beneficiary access is not disrupted by providing payment rates that better reflect the true cost of care.
Additionally, the program integrity reforms included in this legislation build on the industry supported bill from Representative Beth Van Duyne in the Protecting Seniors and Stopping Fraudsters Act (H.R. 8883), which gives CMS stronger tools to combat healthcare fraud without imposing unnecessary burdens on legitimate providers.
If home health providers, as a majority, are already working to support strong program integrity, we should be able to identify and correct fraud without undermining those necessary providers who are operating responsibly.
Please cosponsor S.5250 and work with your colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee to advance the Medicare Home Health Payment Integrity and Protection Act of 2026.
Thank you for weighing your commitment to our loved ones and family members on Medicare who rely on home health for daily living.
