The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) Joins Sens. Susan Collins and Bob Casey and Reps. Jim McGovern and Walter Jones in Urging Access to Home H...(supporter of home health care services d...),Health

Date:10/18/2007

supporter of home health care services during my time in Congress, and I am proud to introduce this legislation," said Rep. Jim McGovern. "Making further, deep cuts in home health care services is not just wrong, it's bad fiscal policy. We know that home health care is a cost-effective, compassionate way to deliver high-quality services. The CMS proposal makes no sense, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to move our legislation through the Congress."

"Senators Collins, Casey, Bond, Reed, Cantwell and Roberts and Representatives McGovern and Jones are to be commended for their act of conscience and courage in overturning this shortsighted policy and seeking to preserve for all Americans the fundamental right articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court to be cared for in the least restrictive environment -- at home," said Val J. Halamandaris, President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "We are deeply grateful that they have made this critical issue a top priority of their legislative efforts."

Jeffrey Kincheloe, Director of Government Affairs for NAHC, said that "while the need for home care is increasing, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have sought to decrease rather than increase Medicare home health funding. CMS has scheduled a $6 billion cut on Medicare home health beneficiaries who are, by definition, ill and homebound and cannot fight for themselves. Such cuts are unconscionable and out of touch with reality."

Unless Congress intervenes, fewer people will have access to care, those who do qualify will receive less care, more than 50% of all Medicare providers will be paid less than it costs them to provide services, many home health providers will go out of business, and overall Medicare costs will increase because patients who had been receiving care at home will be forced to receive their care at five to ten times the cost in overcrowded hospital emergency rooms or nursing homes. Others will simply
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SOURCE National Association for Home Care & Hospice Copyright©2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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