Home Health & Hospice Week
U.S. Senators Urge CMS To Lay Off Indiscriminate Home Health Cuts
U.S. Senators have home health agencies’ backs when it comes to PDGM and other detrimental changes, they showed in a Feb. 12 Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing, “There’s No Place Like Home: Home Health Care in Rural America.” “I have never understood why administration after administration targets home health care for reimbursement cuts,” said Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a prepared statement. “If there are bad apples in the industry, go after those agencies. Don’t penalize everyone,” Collins said. “One of the constants I hear is that [seniors] prefer to age and receive services and supports in their homes and their communities,” said Committee Ranking Member Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania). “I am concerned about implementation of the new Patient-Driven Groupings Model and the ability of rural agencies to absorb pre-emptive rate cuts of more than 4 percent based on ‘assumptions that somehow agencies will try to maximize reimbursement,’” Collins said. “Agencies have weathered several years of reimbursement reductions through both regulatory changes as well as sequestration, and we cannot assume that they can continue to provide the same level of home health services at reduced rates.” Collins called on her colleagues to consider implementing a new rural-add on. Links to the senators’ statements, as well as those from industry members and representatives, are at www.aging.senate.gov/hearings/theres-no-place-like-home-home-health-care-in-rural-america.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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