Home Health & Hospice Week

Study spells out why copays are bad for benes. Grappling with current regulatory and reimbursement requirements is tough, but keep an eye out for even more severe legislative developments for the future. Members of Congress and the Obama administration are knee-deep in budget talks, with a focus on trying to find budget savings. And a prime target is Medicare spending. Proposals ranging from increasing the Medicare eligibility age to upping Medicare premiums are on the table. And a proposal for a home health agency copayment continues to be discussed among lawmakers, with a serious chance of making it into legislation this year, industry experts predict. But HHAs have some concrete study findings to fight that move. About 55 percent of 2008 home health users would have been subject to the full $150 copayment amount suggested by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, found a recent study conducted by Avalere Health. Such [...]