Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare officials miss another opportunity to improve care in remote areas.

Medicare wouldn’t have to look far to get ideas for helping rural beneficiaries in the home health arena. They could just reinstate the home health rural add-on.

In a recent blog post titled “Addressing Rural Health Inequities in Medicare,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services observes that “61 million Americans live in rural, tribal, and geographically isolated communities across the United States. These communities often experience significant health inequities. Compared to urban Americans, rural Americans are more likely to have heart disease, stroke, cancer, unintentional injuries, suicide risk, and chronic lung disease, and have higher death rates from COVID-19.”

CMS declares that “addressing rural health inequities is a cornerstone of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) effort to improve health equity.”

However, the blog post doesn’t touch on home health or hospice services, or mention the rural add-on. It mostly focuses on hospitals and physicians, observers note.

See the blog post at www.cms.gov/blog/addressing-rural-health-inequities-medicare.