Home Health & Hospice Week

Meanwhile, the home care industry is reacting to the Republicans’ American Health Care Act, introduced to fulfill many campaign promises to repeal and replace so-called “Obamacare.”

In reviewing the AHCA, “there are concerns that access to home care is not a priority,” the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s Val Halamandaris says in a March 15 letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “For example, the bill eliminates an important Medicaid option, the Community First Choice benefit, which encourages states to shift spending to cost effective home care.”

Also, “the current per capita caps formula will be a roadblock to the expansion of access to home care in Medicaid.”

Not requiring states to offer a Medicaid hospice benefit means “imposition of caps or other limits on funding for Medicaid services will create tremendous pressure on states, and will place existing coverage of hospice care at serious risk,” NAHC adds. “We respectfully recommend that the Congress take all necessary steps in its health care reform efforts to preserve and advance access to home care.”