HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of February 29

CMS Tightens Screws on Home Health Fraud
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is making strides to crack down on home health fraud through data use and more site visits, the agency announced Monday. (Kourtney Liepelt/Home Health Care News)

Insurers, Drugmakers Wrestle with How to Build Value-Based Contracts
Value-based contracts may be hard to orchestrate since they require doctors, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and drug companies, often rivals, to cooperate and share data. (Bob Herman/Modern Healthcare)

Medicare Advantage Isn’t Just a Republican Idea Anymore
Record-high Medicare Advantage enrollment is translating into snowballing political support for the program. The Medicare-like coverage offered by private-sector companies was originally a Republican idea. But now, some of Medicare Advantage’s most important advocates are Democrats. (Caitlin Owens/Morning Consult)

Bad Debt is the Pain Hospitals Can’t Heal
Hospitals have long struggled to collect bills when patients aren’t covered by insurance—creating delinquent accounts. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to relieve some of that strain by helping pay for coverage for millions of Americans and expanding Medicaid in some states to cover the poor. (John Lauerman/Bloomberg Business)

Medicare Cuts Hit Home for Medical-Equipment Users, Suppliers
Randy Grunau needs expensive, home-medical equipment to breathe. Cuts to Medicare reimbursements for such equipment would be disastrous, his wife, Stephanie, said. (Mark Bliss/Southeast Missourian)