Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare cuts and changes come to the table as the "fiscal cliff" looms, with suggestions to increase the eligibility age from 65 to 67 or even 70 years old, NAHC reports. Although raising the Medicare eligibility age could help to curb rising healthcare costs, it would come with a host of serious problems, such as potentially higher premiums and increased employer costs.

Failure to avoid sequestration and resolve fiscal cliff issues would trigger a 2-percent cut in Medicare provider payments effective in February 2013. Providers are facing $40 billion in Medicare cuts beginning in 2014, courtesy of the Affordable Care Act.