The Home Care Alliance Submitted Testimony on Senate Bill 812, An Act to Ensure the Availability of Medications in Time of an Emergency. The bill was part of a public hearing that lasted all day on June 9 before the Joint Committee on Public Health where the committee heard testimony on legislation relative to health disparities.
Click here to see our Testimony for more details and our suggested addition to the bill.
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US Representative Mike Capuano is the latest from the state’s Congressional delegation to sign onto letters that oppose damaging cuts to home health. Check the Alliance’s advocacy page under “contact your legislator” to send a message to urge legislators to sign on to Congressman Jim McGovern’s “dear colleague” letters in support of home-based services.
For more information, see the text from a letter the Alliance sent to all Massachusetts Congressman below:
On behalf of Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, I urge you to sign on to a pair of initiatives championed by your colleagues James McGovern and Walter Jones that opposes home health care cuts in the President’s budget and establishes a House Home Health Working Group.
Home-based services promote independent living for seniors and other individuals in need of care, which help them to remain in their communities where they are most comfortable and familiar. These services are cost-effective in keeping patients out of the hospital and nursing homes. At an economically challenging juncture when home health rates are being frozen and reduced in Massachusetts on the state level, we need to encourage and expand the utilization of home-based care rather than make damaging cuts.
The Working Group will look to further the role of home health in our nation’s health care delivery system while the McGovern-Jones “dear colleague” letter – addressed to the Committee on Ways & Means – resists the President’s proposal to cut Medicare home health payments by $13.16 billion over the next five years. If the President’s proposal is allowed to pass, Massachusetts would lose $16.7 million in Medicare reimbursement for fiscal year 2010 alone. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report may have uncovered sporadic fraud in home health, but a better approach to controlling Medicare home health spending is to prosecute and punish the few agencies responsible for that fraud instead of reducing rates.
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The Alliance is collecting testimony relative to a pair of legislative proposals that will be among others taken up by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing at their June 3rd public hearing.
They are: Senate Bill 535, An Act to Establish an Equitable Rate of Payment for Medicaid Home Health Services.
And, Senate Bill 552, An Act Requiring an Analysis of Medicaid Home Health Rates.
Since our annual Spring Conference begins on the day of the public hearing, the Alliance will submit written testimony and data to support these important proposals. We hope those interested in offering their support will send us their written testimony as well.
Check our Legislative Priorities or contact James Fuccione at the Alliance for more information on these bills.
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Executive Director Pat Kelleher and Director of Legislative & Public Affairs James Fuccione traveled to Washington DC in late March for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s annual conference. Along with several agency members, the Alliance held a briefing for Congressional staff on proposed cuts to home health in the President’s budget and also met with Congressman James P. McGovern.
McGovern continues to be a champion for home health and the Alliance is assisting his office in fighting the proposed reductions. The Congressman was also featured on the cover of Caring Magazine and has circulated a letter among his colleagues announcing the reconvening of the House’s Home Health Working Group.
For more details on this lobbying effort, see our press release and for more on the Congressman and Alliance’s advocacy work, please contact us or visit our Advocacy Center.
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Expanding the use of healthcare information technology is a key focus of the federal economic stimulus program. While the bulk of this funding is targeted for hospitals and physicians’ offices, the states have significant flexibility in how they distribute some of the funds.
The Alliance has scheduled a meeting with Mitch Adams, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, on Monday, June 1, to make our case for having some of those funds directed toward home health IT.
We need three or four agency IT directors to participate in this meeting to:
Members interested in participating in this important meeting should contact Tim Burgers, Associate Director at tburgers@hcalliancema.org.
Memo to Executive Office of Health & Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby encouraging telehomecare as a solution to growing healthcare costs.
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The Alliance submitted comments on payment and purchase reform to the MA Special Commission on Health Care Payment Reform.
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Testimony to the Joint Committee on Ways & Means regarding our budget priorities
60 Day Cut Fact Sheet
Telehealth Fact Sheet
Home health services are an important part of caring for the elderly, mentally ill and otherwise infirm citizens of Massachusetts and helps individuals remain independent in their homes and communities. Home health is also cost-effective in keeping patients out of nursing homes and hospitals as well as reducing visits to the emergency room. The industry carries with it opportunities for further cost savings, but the circumstances of our economy have hindered their advancement.
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Pat Kelleher’s Testimony on Fair Share Contributions
Our primary concern with these proposed changes is their impact on our smaller, private care home care companies. These companies have emerged to meet a growing need for quality affordable elder care in our state; they are providing new jobs in our state, often for workers who are new to the workplace. But the work hours fluctuate widely for their direct care workers depending on the number of clients, on each client’s health status, and even the time year. Over this past year the vast majority of these entities have done what they believed the state wanted them to do. They worked to comply with the law, including the state’s new fair share rules, and filing deadlines. Few opted to pay rather than comply. With these proposed changes, especially including that quarterly test, it seems to them that what the state now wants is not compliance, but payment.
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Massachusetts Olmstead Plan. The Press Release comes from the office of Governor Deval Patrick and was announced on Sept. 12, 2008.
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Think Home Care Blog 