Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) will soon be announcing that the cost report filing deadline for those home health agencies with cost reporting years ending October 31, 2000, or later will be no earlier than November 30, 2001. Previously, CMS postponed the filing deadline to August 31, 2001. The further postponement is needed because Medicare is still working on issuing the Provider Statistical and Reimbursement Reports (P S & Rs) that are essential to the cost report completion. Agencies with cost reporting years ending July 1, 2001, or later still will have five months after the end of the cost reporting year to file.

It is possible that the November 30 date will be further postponed if Medicare has not resolved the PS&R matters with sufficient time for agencies to meet the deadline. NAHC has communicated to CMS that home health agencies should have at least two to three months after the PS&R data becomes available to file their cost reports.

On related matters, the revised cost report and accompanying instructions have been finalized and are available below. CMS expects to publicly release these items via its web site soon.