When it comes to payment, there are generally two issues that are drawing the ire of home health providers of late: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule for CY 2023 and subpar Medicare Advantage (MA) rates. 

A third one has been added to that list: the role of conveners.

As with most issues in home health care, it bubbled below the surface for a while, then someone finally said it aloud. Now, it’s formed somewhat of a movement.

It started with LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) CEO Keith Myers on the first day of National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s (NAHC) Financial Management Conference. He pointed out that he thinks conveners – or “middlemen” – are the real problem in the MA-home health provider relationship.

Two days later, a home health operator posed a question to a panel of experts: “These intermediaries, these companies that tell managed care how to save money by denying care, and then take a layer of the revenue for that service – are they not worse for us than the Medicare Advantage plans themselves?”

There was a pause.

“Is that a rhetorical question?” one expert responded.

Since then, I’ve spoken with both home health operators and conveners to get a better idea on just how pervasive this convener issue is in home health care. And that’s the topic of today’s members-only, exclusive HHCN+ Update.