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Home Health & Hospice Week

Budget:

HOSPICES WIN MILLIONS IN STIMULUS BILL

Published on Tue Jan 20, 2009

But Medicaid cuts for many states are still rolling ahead. Hospices have won back $135 million in Medicare funding for 2009, thanks to an uphill battle in the recently enacted economic stimulus bill. Hospices' hopes were dimmed when the Senate did not include the measure, which delays the Budget Neutrality Adjustment Factor (BNAF) cut for one year, in its pared-down economic stimulus legislation. But when the Senate and House compromised on a bill to send to President Obama, the hospice provision made it in and the president signed it into law. The achievement is "a significant victory,"the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization cheers in a release. About "3,000 hospice provider jobs were threatened to be cut this year"due to the reimbursement reduction that took effect Oct. 1, 2008. Some hospice programs, especially small and rural ones, were in jeopardy as well,NHPCO notes. The hospice industry gained the concession even [...]
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