Advocacy Alert: Contact Your State Senator to Support Home Care in the FY13 Budget

The Massachusetts senate is set to debate what will become their version of the state’s FY13 budget this week. Several senators have filed amendments to the budget proposal on behalf of the Home Care Alliance that reflect industry priorities and agency members and advocates are encouraged to contact their senator to urge their support.

Below are prepared emails that can be sent simply by clicking the issue of concern, filling out the contact information form, reviewing the message and clicking “send.” Fact sheets are available by clicking the “read about this issue” link below each heading.

Senate offices can also be contacted by phone and a listing of each senator is available here. For those who are unsure who represents them in the senate, go to wheredoivotema.com and type in your address.

When calling, ask that they support the following amendments (mention the amendment number, name, and who sponsored the amendment).

# 559               Certificate of Need                                          Offered by Sen. Michael Moore

• Massachusetts is one of five states without either licensure or a CON requirement for home care and the proper oversight will ensure a level of quality assurance for patients without adding cost to the Commonwealth.

# 692               Telehealth Reimbursement                              Offered by Sen. Richard Moore

• Instructing MassHealth to reimburse home health care providers for telehealth remote patient monitoring would save costs by not having to pay for unnecessary nursing visits, is used in many other states, and the service is reimbursed by Medicare.

# 554               Home Health Rates                                        Offered by Sen. Michael Moore

• The MassHealth home health payment rate was cut by 20 percent to patients receiving skilled nursing care past 60 days of care in December of 2008. This amendment would restore that rate and would strengthen agencies that keep at-risk MassHealth clients out of costlier settings.

# 682               Pediatric Home Care Services             Offered by Sen. Thomas Kennedy

• This amendment does not increase any rate, but merely shifts existing payment recognizing a home health agency’s administrative requirements over independent nurses who have no such requirements.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.