Home Health Cuts Will Take Large Swipe at Texas
The cuts Congress will likely make to fund federal health care reform will take an extra large swipe at Texas, a state that has worked hard to let the elderly age at home.
Texas home health agencies, which provide in-home nursing for homebound Medicare patients, would face between $7 billion and $9 billion in reimbursement cuts over the next decade. That’s 16 percent of all cuts nationally, and more than any other state, including home health-heavy Florida and California.
Advocates for the industry say if the cuts pass, two-thirds of Texas’ home health agencies would be operating in the ...
Comments (2)
skhn
Home health care is important; it does permit many to stay in their homes and out of the hospitals. However, when you know of some home health care providers who do such chores as wash a client's dishes, you do have to ponder if review and reform isn't called for.
Worse yet regarding uncontrolled expenditures is the abuse of expenditures for durable medical equipment. Power chairs for an ambulatory person to get around in a small, one-level home? Same day pick up of a hospital bed from a nursing home or assisted living facility, then delivery of an equivalent bed to be billed to a hospice? All one has to do is watch TV ads for power chairs (scooters) to know that something is wrong. How about looking into the cost of those ads, obviously paid for by profits obtained through Medicare payments.
BobKafka
The cuts to Medicare Home Health is not only harmful to Home Health agencies and people with disabilities of all ages, it adds to an unintended consequence of the health care reform may create, that has not been thoroughly debated by Congress or publiclly vetted by the media. This is the highly touted covering the low income uninsured under the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a federal program that is state run and requires state dollars to get what is called the federal match. Though it is an efficient way to cover the millions of low income uninsured, the state match required will put enormous pressure on state budgets that are already in deficit all over the country. What will a state do? Well since states must have a balanced budget they will most likely look towards Medicaid optional programs for savings. Since all home and community services are Medicaid optional services and nursing home services are what is called an entitlement services, it is likely the most popular and least expensive home and community services will probably get cut. The end result of that is more people will be forced into expensive nursing homes
even though they would rather receive these services at home. Of course this is not what Congress intends but this issue has been overshawdowed by the debate on the public option and abortion. We need health care reform but there needs to be protections in the bill so that the unintended consequence of forcing people into nursing homes does not occur.
bob kafka
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