Home Health & Hospice Week

Senate passes billions in reimbursement cuts. Congress has yet to pass the final word on home care cuts this year, but the outlook is grim. On Christmas Eve, the Senate approved massive health care reform legislation which includes cuts to home health agency and hospice reimbursement levels under Medicare. The Senate legislation would cut HHArates by $39 billion over 10 years, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. That's nearly $3 billion less than first proposed, thanks to some last-minute amendments from home care-friendly Senators. That's compared to more than $55 billion in home care cuts in the health care reform bill the House passed back in November (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 40, p. 308). "The Senate's legislation takes a far better approach," NAHC judges. "Cuts to home health providers ... are considerably more moderate, phased-in over time, and targeted in part toward abuses in the [...]