NAHC Highly Critical of Medicare Payment Rule

Washington , DC; August 23, 2007 – The National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Inc., (NAHC) considers payment rate cuts announced yesterday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as undermining access to care in patients’ homes and diminishing the importance and value of planned reforms to the Medicare home health services payment methodology.

“The very availability of access to cost efficient care for the elderly and disabled is at stake with Medicare’s action,” stated Val J. Halamandaris, president of NAHC. “At a time when the Medicare program is threatened with bankruptcy, the Medicare administration institutes a nearly $7 billion cut in the home health care program that has proven that it is part of the solution to meeting the needs of the nation’s elderly and disabled,” he added.

Medicare released a regulation late on August 22 nd that cuts Medicare payment rates by nearly 12% over the next four years. NAHC had challenged an earlier rate cut proposal arguing that the appropriate shift of patients from higher cost institutional care in hospitals and nursing homes has increased the intensity of care for these patients at home. Medicare spending for home health services is well within budgeted levels, with spending in 2007 estimated to be at $15 billion, well below spending in 1997. While home health services have controlled spending, patient outcomes for those cared for at home continue to improve, resulting in improved patient clinical conditions and quality of life.

“If Congress allows Medicare to put these cuts in place, over 50% of all home health agencies will be paid less than it costs to deliver care. No health care provider can sustain that impact,” Halamandaris noted. “The predictable result will be that our health care spending will increase exponentially as patients who lose access to home care seek out health care services in much more expensive institutional settings. It makes no sense,” he concluded.

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is the leading trade association representing home care and hospice organizations and the millions of patients they serve across the country.