AAHomecare announced its concern that Congress may take a post-election, end-of-the-year stab at cutting Medicare. The fear for home care providers is that the leadership will again cut home care programs to help offset the scheduled cut for physicians. Targets for cuts might include the president?s proposed 13-month cap on oxygen and the inflation update for home health, which was denied last year. Warding off these unwarranted cuts and freezes and strengthening home care are top agenda items for the AAHomecare Legislative Fly-In today and tomorrow.
Key points home care providers will make in Washington include the following. Home care stakeholders who are unable to attend the Fly-In are encouraged to make these points phone and e-mail. Details and leave-behinds are posted on the AAHomecare Web site, www.aahomecare.org.
- Cosponsor H.R. 5513, the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act of 2006, to repeal the provision of the Deficit Reduction Act that forces beneficiaries to own and assume responsibility for oxygen equipment. The DRA oxygen provision raises medical risks and does not save Medicare money.
- Cosponsor the Hobson-Tanner bill, H.R. 3559, which amends competitive bidding under MMA to ensure quality standards are in place, preserve patient access to home care and protect small providers. Urge CMS to ?get it right? when implementing competitive bidding by taking the time to ensure access to quality care.
- Urge CMS to use the alternative to gap-filling for setting the fee schedule for the new power mobility codes. Congress should closely monitor the power mobility device coding initiative at CMS to preserve patient access and services for medically appropriate equipment.
- Preserve the Medicare home health inflation update to strengthen access to care and offset technology, fuel and skilled labor costs.
- Remember that home care is significantly more cost-effective than institutional settings, according to studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine and other medical journals.
Also, as a part of the advocacy effort on June 20, providers should encourage oxygen patients and their families to contact Congress about the drastic shift in oxygen policy enacted in the Deficit Reduction Act and the legislative remedy — cosponsoring the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act, H.R. 5513. AAHomecare has a sample letter for oxygen patients posted on the top of its Web site, under Advocacy Priorities.
