Home Health & Hospice Week

Will new initiative be mere lip service or bring real change? Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Olmstead decision 10 years ago, wait lists for state-funded home care programs remain long in many places. Now the Obama administration is trying to address that problem. The Olmstead decision requires the government to serve beneficiaries in their least restrictive environment -- at home. But many states have not followed through by offering home care as an equal alternative for institutional care, particularly for the disabled. President Obama has designated 2009 as "The Year of Community Living" and instructed the Department of Health and Human Services and other government agencies to collaborate on making community-based care for the disabled and elderly a priority, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius notes in a release.For example: In the June 22 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gives advance notice that it will publish a proposed [...]