Home Health Helping Patients While Saving Billions for Medicare
By Michael Fife, A.C.T. Home Health, Denton LIVING WELL Magazine
With all the scrambling in Washington, DC about cutting spending, avoiding tax hikes, and avoiding increased deficit spending, home health is looking like a savior for the American people and their politicians. Yet, politicians are still trying to find ways to cut Medicare payments to home health agencies and require beneficiaries to make co-payments for each new, non-continuous episode. Healthcare reform was supposed to increase access to healthcare for Americans, but the proposed copayments may, in fact, have the opposite effect, especially for older Americans with multiple chronic illnesses.
The average cost of a home health episode, which is measured on a 60-day cycle, cost less than only one and a half days in a short-term acute-care hospital based on Medicare data from 2008. So, one would think Congress would encourage more Medicare beneficiaries to utilize home health services and avoid a very expensive hospital visit. A study by Avalere Health, LLC that began in October 2008, found that early use of home health services following a hospital stay by patients with at least one chronic disease saved Medicare $1.7 billion over a two-year period from 2005–2006. And, could have possibly saved an additional $1.77 billion if those using other post-acute care facilities had, instead, utilized home health services. The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (AHHQI), a sponsor of the Avalere study, believes Medicare could realize more than $30 billion in savings for chronic disease patients over 10 years by expanding access to home health.
The same study found that those patients utilizing home health versus other types of post-acute care had significantly fewer rehospitalizations. But, currently only about 9% of Medicare beneficiaries utilize home health to manage their chronic diseases and it is feared by some that the percentage will drop if beneficiaries are required to make copayments to receive home health services. There has never been a more important time to voice your opinion to your representatives about Medicare rules under consideration. These rules will have long-term impact on your access to affordable healthcare. For more information regarding Medicare rules under consideration, visit www.cms.gov or contact Michael Fife at 940-484-2900.
Author Michael Fife is the director of marketing at A.C.T. Home Health. You may learn more about them at their website www.ActHomeHealth.com.
