Home Health & Hospice Week

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the majority of the Affordable Care Act, you can expect to see Medicaid funding for home care expand -- maybe.

Many of the ACA's Medicaid provisions expand access to Medicaid home health, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "However, the court seemed to give the states the option to choose whether or not to participate in these expansions," NAHC notes. "Those states that refuse to do so may not be thrown out of the entire Medicaid program, the court said. This puts the states in the position to accept or not accept the federal money that would pay the lion's share for most of these expansions."

The Visiting Nurse Associations of Amer-ica "urges policymakers to move forward on implementing critical provisions in the legislation, such as the Vulnerable Patient study that will evaluate access to home health care for nation's most underserved patients," the trade group says in a release.

"NAHC believes that the Affordable Care Act can and should be improved," the trade group says. For example, NAHC wants a two-year delay to the Medicaid provisions to allow states to prepare.