Home Health & Hospice Week
Don't Dismiss Demo Yet
And anyway, "I don't think you measure the success of this program by a nose count," the former CMS high-ranking official tells Eli. "You measure it by whether folks who are in home health and qualify know they have some new freedom to leave home."
Even if the program enrolls few people, it will still be a success by showing Congress what the change in the homebound requirement would result in, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official involved in the project says. The authors of the demonstration project passed in last year's Medicare bill were definitely worried about the "woodwork effect" - a flood of patients entering the program under the loosened criteria, the source notes.
If the number of participants is small and the costs are low, "perhaps we can make this a national program" by dispelling legislators' fears and removing the budget scare tactics, Wardwell adds.
But Ellen Caruso of the Home Care Association of Colorado raises concerns about whether the project really will capture the costs of treating the patients eligible under the demonstration project. HHAs will absorb the extra costs of the demo into their PPS rates, so policy- and law-makers won't have any idea how much it really is costing to include the new patient population in home care, Caruso worries.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Eligibility:
Homebound Demonstration Project Off To A Slow Start
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Don't Dismiss Demo Yet
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