Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicaid funding changes would impact home care most.

The future of your Medicaid business may hinge on legislation that’s been postponed for a vote in the Senate.

The House of Representatives narrowly passed its Obamacare repeal and replace bill, the American Health Care Act, in early May. Although the bill doesn’t touch Medicare, it includes major cuts to Medicaid funding that would affect many home health agencies (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 12).

Now the Senate has released details of its bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. The bill “turned out to be very similar” to AHCA, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in analysis of the bill. “Both plans shift Medicaid to a per capita cap model and end the Community First Choice Program.”

But with five U.S. senators saying they’ll vote against the bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed the vote on BRCA to after the July 4 congressional recess.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will save the government $321 billion. “That amount is $202 billion more than the estimated net savings for the version of H.R. 1628 that was passed by the House of Representatives,” CBO notes on its website. BRCA would also result in 22 million people not being insured, a slightly lower figure than the AHCA’s 24 million.