Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 101 Part 2.djvu/869

 PUBLIC LAW 100-203—DEC. 22, 1987

101 STAT. 1330-75

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"(ID base such limits on the most recent audited wage data available, which data may be for cost reporting periods beginning no earlier than July 1, 1985.". (2) The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall apply to cost 42 USC 1395x note. reporting periods beginning on or after July 1, 1988. (b) STUDY OF LIMITS.—The Secretary of Health and Human Serv- Reports. ices shall study and report to the Congress, not later than June 1, 1988, on— (1) whether the separate schedules of cost limits currently applied to home health agencies under title XVIII of the Social Security Act located in urban and rural areas accurately reflect differences in the costs of urban and rural home health agenjfc cies, and (2) the appropriateness of modifying such limits to take into account the proportion of agency patients who are from urban and rural areas. SEC. 4027. HOME HEALTH PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.

42 USC 1395n note.

(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this section referred to as the "Secretary") shall provide for a demonstration project to develop and test alternative methods of paying home health agencies on a prospective basis for services furnished under the medicare and medicaid programs. The project shall be designed in a manner to enable the Secretary to evaluate the effects of various methods of prospective payment (including payments on a per-visit, per-case, and per-episode basis) on program expenditures, access to, and quality of, home health care, and home health agency operations. The Secretary shall assure that services Contracts. are first furnished under the project not later than July 1, 1988, and, for this purpose, the Secretary may reinstate a previously awarded contract, or award a sole source contract, to carry out the project. (b) FUNDING.—The provisions of subsection (a)(2) and the first sentence of subsection (b) of section 402 of the Social Security Amendments of 1967 shall apply to the demonstration project under subsection (a) of this section as they apply to experiments under < subsection (a)(1) of that section. (c) REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit to Congress, not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, an interim report on the demonstration project and, not later than four years after the date of the enactment of this Act, a final report on the results of the project.

Subpart C—Other Provisions SEC. 4031. PAYMENT CYCLE STANDARDS. (a) PAYMENT FLOOR STANDARDS.—

(1) Section 1816(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395h(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following new •pars^aph: "(3)(A) Each agreement under this section shall provide that no payment shall be issued, mailed, or otherwise transmitted with respect to any claim submitted under this title within the applicable number of calendar days after the date on which the claim is received. "(B) In this paragraph, the term 'applicable number of calendar days' means—

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