# Federal Register #2026-22750

CMS Finalizes Medicare Home Health Payment, Quality Reporting, and DMEPOS Policy Updates

**Buyer:** Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
**Posted:** November 09, 2026
**Identifier:** 2026-22750

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a final rule updating Medicare home health and related DME policies; it is a regulatory notice, not a request to buy products or services.
- **Government buyer:** HHS — CMS; no sub-agency office is identified.
- **Home health payment:** For 2027, establishes a 3% temporary payment reduction (factor 0.9700), a 2.1% update for agencies reporting required quality data and a 0.1% update for those that do not, recalibrated payment measures, and an outlier FDL ratio of 0.29.
- **Quality reporting:** Revises OASIS submission deadlines and transitions OASIS and HHCAHPS reporting periods to calendar-year reporting.
- **DMEPOS policies:** Clarifies that an identical replacement item under the same HCPCS code does not, by itself, require a new face-to-face encounter; a replacement order and applicable documentation are still required. Expands coverage for qualifying external infusion pumps, associated home infusion drugs, and supplies.
- **Other policy changes:** Strengthens provider and supplier enrollment safeguards and requires competitive-bidding suppliers to report the country of origin for lead items.
- **OEMs and vendors:** No commercial OEMs, vendors, or specific products are named. No quantities or part numbers are requested.

### Description

This final rule updates Medicare home health payment rates and related policies for calendar year 2027. It finalizes a temporary behavior adjustment, recalibrated case-mix weights, functional impairment levels, comorbidity subgroups, and low-utilization payment adjustment thresholds. It also finalizes changes to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program and addresses potential alignment with the expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model. Additional provisions clarify DMEPOS replacement-item encounter requirements, change provider and supplier enrollment requirements, implement a DME benefit expansion for infusion pumps and drugs, and address DMEPOS competitive bidding information collection.

[View original listing](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/11/09/2026-22750/calendar-year-2027-home-health-prospective-payment-system-hh-pps-rate-update-requirements-for-the-hh)