Budget:
President Obama Proposes Home Health Copayment
Published on Tue Aug 23, 2011
Expect a fight to avoid a $100 copay for nonhospitalized patients. You may find a lot of patients refusing home care services if a presidential proposal takes effect. President Obama issued a report to the socalled "super committee" tasked with finding more than a trillion dollars in budget savings by Thanksgiving. In the report, the president proposes a home health agency copayment of $100 per episode, starting for new beneficiaries in 2017. The copay would apply only to non-LUPA episodes not preceded by an acute inpatient stay. The report cites the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's similar recommendation in its last congressional report (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XX, No. 11, p. 84). MedPAC suggested a $150 copay amount, however. The copay would strip $400 million from Medicare spending over 10 years, the report says. The industry has come out swinging against the proposal. The Visiting Nurse Associations of America "is deeply [...]