Bloomberg — Medicare, the US government insurance programme for the elderly and disabled, said it will pay more to home health agencies that report data on the care provided to patients.Agencies providing the information will receive a full inflation increase of 2.9 percent in 2008. Those that don’t will get an increase of 0.9 percent, Medicare said in a statement today.

Medicare wants to encourage providers to collect data on patient care and has begun to link some payments to the reporting of quality measures. Home health agencies, which provide skilled nursing in patients’ residences, are being asked to report on improvements in grooming, eating, speech and other basic skills.

“The continued improvement in the quality of and access to home health services will be enhanced through this additional public reporting of quality information,” said Medicare’s Acting Administrator Leslie V. Norwalk in the statement. “These changes are significant steps toward Medicare becoming an active purchaser of high quality, efficient care.”