Transparency Win: CMS Directs MACs to Publish TPE Data, Quarterly

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services directs Medicare Administrative Contractors to post Target Probe and Educate results quarterly on their websites-an important step forward toward improving contractor transparency for providers in home health, hospice and nursing home settings.

In a big win for home health, hospice, and nursing home providers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) via a Change Request (CR 14616) published on September 30, 2026, directs Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to post Target Probe and Educate (TPE) results quarterly on their websites, effective November 2, 2026.

Until now, providers in home health, hospice and nursing home care settings had no insights into trends and issues concerning TPE.

LeadingAge has repeatedly called for this kind of transparency from MACs; in our March 30, 2026 response to the Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare (CRUSH) Request for Information, we explain that the agency's focus on program integrity could be served by improving provider due process and transparency, which would improve efficiency and targeting, and also boost compliant provider morale. In addition, we explain that "having a more open and transparent process would ultimately improve payment accuracy, since providers would have better understanding and sightline into where errors occur and
why."

Specifics of changes being implemented by CMS include:

• At a minimum, MACs must post the three most common reasons per Targeted Probe and Educate prioritized problem on their websites.
• If more than three denial reasons for a specific topic would be useful, the MACs should include those as well.