Home Health & Hospice Week

The House and Senate are duking it out over $93 billion in Medicaid cuts, and home care providers could end up on the receiving end of the KO.

The House recently passed legislation calling for the Medicaid cuts in the 2004 budget, while the Senate's budget resolution did not include them. The two chambers now are working to reconcile differences in the bills in a conference committee.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) produced a March 25 letter signed by 80 senators that condemns the Medicaid cuts.

Meanwhile, the House Commerce and Energy Committee passed March 26 the regulatory and appeals reform legislation the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee had passed a week earlier. Both committees made similar changes to the legislation during passage, including insulating administrative law judges from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services jurisdiction.

After the full Ways and Means Committee passes its version of the legislation, it can work with Commerce on bringing a compromise bill to the full House. However, it appears unlikely the Senate will take up the bill separately from Medicare reform/prescription drug legislation.