Protect home health care from Medicare cuts: Support patients recovery at home

Home Health Care facing Medicare cuts!  This is the place where families want to be during recovery! 

Echo opinion published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Proposed cuts to Medicare home health services could have a devastating impact on home care providers, as well as the patients and families they work with across the country. 

Without congressional action, these Medicare cuts will be particularly harmful for rural and medically underserved patients. Our elected officials must step in and help.

Medicare — the federal insurance program for individuals 65 and older — has proposed a permanent 7.69% cut to home health care payments — which next year alone would slash $1.33 billion from home health services, translating to an estimated $10 million cut here in Missouri.

On top of that, Medicare is looking to impose an additional $2 billion in cuts as a so-called “clawback” for home health services provided during the height of the pandemic from 2020-2021 as well as another $1 billion for services provided last year. 

Altogether, these cuts would total $18 billion over the next 10 years.

The impact this would have on home health providers and their ability to offer high-quality, comprehensive care in the home setting would be profound. Already in the past few years, the economic outlook for home health organizations has not been positive. Like any other health sector, the home health community was hit hard by the pandemic, with high labor and fuel costs leading to staffing challenges that have caused national home health admission rates to decline by 15% since March 2020, despite a 33% increase in referrals over the same time period.

Imposing these massive cuts to Medicare home health care now would only further exacerbate the issues preventing the home health community from meeting the increased demand for our services. Fortunately, a bipartisan group of legislators in Congress have put forward smart, commonsense legislation that would help avoid the potentially harmful impact these cuts could have on seniors and individuals with disabilities in Missouri and nationwide.

The Preserving Access to Home Health Act of 2022, which has now been introduced in both chambers of Congress, would help protect home health patients as well as providers and clinicians by preventing any proposed cuts to home health from going into effect before 2026. The additional time would give home health providers a little breathing room while ensuring patient access to care remains uninterrupted.

Hopefully, it would also allow Medicare more time to review and refine its budgeting process to avoid threatening the home health community or the older, sick patients we serve.

Home healthcare is exceedingly popular with patients and families alike, which only makes sense given the additional safety and security it provides. According to a recent poll, 91% of seniors in Medicare would prefer to receive their care in their own home as opposed to another healthcare setting. 

Nearly all (97%) of Medicare beneficiaries also said they believe the federal government should maintain Medicare coverage that allows seniors to rehabilitate and recover at home.

If that’s not enough to sway the opinions of lawmakers, then maybe voter opposition to these proposed cuts will. That same poll found that 65% of voters oppose cuts to Medicare home health services and 78% think Congress should pass legislation to block them from going through, including 88% of voters aged 65-years-old or older. With election season underway, members of Congress — including Missouri’s delegation — would do well to keep these considerations in mind when weighing their support for this bill.

Home health providers across Missouri are proud of the nurturing, in-home support and care we offer patients and families. Congress must step in and pass the Preserving Access to Home Health Act to prevent these proposed Medicare cuts from undermining the critical role home health agencies and providers play in keeping Missouri’s seniors and individuals with disabilities healthier and happier in their own homes.

Carol Hudspeth is executive director of the Missouri Alliance for Home Care.