Medicare program; home health agency physician certification regulations--HCFA. Decision to reexamine interpretations, with comment

This document with comment period announces our decision to reexamine our recent interpretations of the Medicare regulations pertaining to indirect compensation arrangements between home health agencies (HHAs) and physicians who certify or recertify the need for home health services or establish or review the home health plan of care. We are withdrawing recent interpretations regarding indirect compensation arrangements where the physicians are salaried employees of, or have a contractual arrangement to provide services for, an entity that also owns the HHA. This will enable us to evaluate our recent interpretations of these regulations and related provisions of section 1877 of the Social Security Act to ensure consistent application of Medicare policy among providers of services.