The CY 2026 Home Health Final Rule is official—and the news is better than expected. CMS reduced the proposed -6.4% cut to -1.3%, returning $915 million to the industry. But with inflation and rising wages, margins are still tight. Agencies that thrive in 2026 will be the ones using data to protect their bottom line.

For too long, skilled nursing facilities have viewed Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) reporting as a quarterly regulatory checkbox—a necessary burden to satisfy CMS requirements and avoid penalties. But forward-thinking facilities are discovering something remarkable: when approached strategically, the management of staffing data becomes one of the most powerful tools for operational excellence, quality improvement, and competitive positioning.

Starting January 2026, Medicare is testing a new payment approach called TEAM (Transforming Episode Accountability Model) in about 741 hospitals across roughly 188 geographic areas. This five-year test program represents a significant shift in how hospitals and their post-acute care partners will approach surgical patient care.

The 2025 AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program recipients have been announced and we are thrilled to share an unprecedented milestone: For the first time ever, all three Gold – Excellence in Quality Award winners are SHP clients! Among the 182 total award recipients this year, SHP clients demonstrated exceptional commitment to quality care, earning recognition across all award levels. This historic achievement underscores our position as the partner of choice for organizations pursuing excellence in long-term and post-acute care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the CY 2026 Home Health proposed rule on June 30, 2025, introducing some major changes that Home Health Agencies (HHAs) are now reviewing and preparing to comment on. This rule proposes the largest payment cut since the Home Health Agency Prospective Payment System (HHA PPS) began in CY 2000. CMS is suggesting a reimbursement cut of 6.4%, or $1.135 billion.

The annual SHPBest™ award program was created to recognize home health and hospice providers that consistently provide outstanding performance in patient and caregiver satisfaction. SHP would like to congratulate the 2024 SHP Best-of-the-Best winners, who have been acknowledged for achieving the highest overall HHCAHPS patient satisfaction or CAHPS Hospice caregiver satisfaction scores of all eligible SHP clients during the 2024 calendar year.

Big changes are coming to the way nursing homes are rated, and if you're part of the industry, it’s vital to prepare now. Starting in July 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is implementing updates to the Five-Star Quality Rating System to make ratings more accurate, transparent, and reflective of current performance. These changes are detailed in the QSO-25-20-NH memorandum, marking a significant shift for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) across the country. Beyond understanding these updates, facilities must adapt quickly to maintain and improve their ratings—and that’s where Strategic Healthcare Programs (SHP) can help.

Hospices will be required to implement the new Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) assessment tool on October 1, 2025. HOPE will take the place of the current Hospice Item Set (HIS) assessment tool utilized today. So, what does that mean for Hospices today? Over all there are new assessment timepoints that must be completed, along with new data elements, but questions remain regarding submissions of the assessments.

The hospice industry is preparing for a significant transformation. On October 1, 2025, the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool will replace the Hospice Item Set (HIS), a historic change in the way hospices collect and evaluate quality data. Developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HOPE aims to enhance care delivery by providing a more patient-centered, outcomes-driven approach for hospice evaluation. What does this transition mean for hospice professionals? This article takes a deep dive into HOPE's development process, the challenges it addresses, and the milestones leading to this significant shift.

As of March 31st, Home Health Agencies (HHAs) have three months of quality episodes completed using the new Performance Year (PY) 2025 measure set of the Expanded Home Health Value-based Purchasing (HHVBP) program. How is your HHA performing? It is not as easy as looking at your past HHVBP performances as there is some significant changes with PY 2025. CMS not only changed the number of measures from 12 to 10 (deleted 5, added in 3), many of the measure weightings were adjusted, and the baseline year was changed from CY 2022 to CY 2023 reflecting more current outcome data. CMS did keep the ratio of measure weights across the OASIS/Claims/HHCAHPS categories the same at 35%/35%/30% respectively.