T.The COVID-19 pandemic has overheated home care in the United States Suddenly it’s possible to get home visits from primary care providers. home physiotherapy, dialysis, or drug infusion; it has even become possible to fully complement hospital-level services at home. And Americans overwhelmingly liked it.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently proposed a 4.2% cut ($810 million) for home care services. These include home services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, medical supplies and skilled nursing. Medicare and other payers building It provides patients with a broader range of home care options without undermining that foundation, providing patients and their families with better outcomes, better quality of life, sustained independence and lower costs.
As the daughter of elderly parents who prefer to stay at home, my heartfelt hope is that policy change will move forward with a new and better set of options rather than limiting options at home. Providing home care for all Americans has inspired us to start the Moving Health Home, a coalition working to change federal and state policies to make home care a standard part of health care. I got
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Medicare proposals not only work against the future, but also partner to advance accountable care, improve health equity, support innovation, address affordability and achieve systemic transformation. CMS has not even reached its own strategic goal of
Promoting accountable care. Home health organizations play a key role in working with healthcare systems and payers to deliver high-quality, people-centred care through innovative value-based agreements. The agreement ties payment for the provision of care to quality of care. This is a way of rewarding providers for improved performance rather than just providing services. Medicare’s proposed cuts make these innovative, cost-saving models less viable and therefore less likely to expand into new services.
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Promote health equity. Medicare cuts can affect health equity in two ways. First, the industry is already struggling to strengthen its home health care workforce. The home health care workforce is primarily made up of immigrants and people of color. Instead of enhancing the industry’s ability to recruit and retain workers through adequate wages and medical benefits, these cuts create pressure to cut costs, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits. Second, funding cannot be cut to improve care for people living in rural areas where travel time and distance are costly.
We support innovation. Innovation in the home health sector has surged in recent years due to the pandemic and a stable payment environment for Medicare. Providers were able to experiment with system transformations and better learn how to improve quality and reduce costs. Take the Choose Home Care Act (S. 2562/HR 5514). This allows people in nursing home care to receive skilled care at home rather than in a facility. An analysis by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice showed that the proposal could save Medicare between $144 million and $247 million annually. Innovative offers like Choose Home are at risk if Medicare cuts are finalized.
Affordable price response. Medicare cuts appear to address federal affordability, but what the public gains is less access to change, services, innovation, and hard-to-reach people.
Given that Americans prefer to receive health care at home, and its proven feasibility and effectiveness, Medicare will move forward, not backward, and double down on home care investments. is needed.
Krista Drobac is the founder of Moving Health Home.
