Home Health Providers Upset By Review Choice Demo During Pandemic

Home health providers in North Carolina and Florida were shocked that CMS decided to start the Review Choice Demonstration in those states in August, and lobbyists say they hope the decision to launch the demo in two new states in the middle of a pandemic was an oversight that will be corrected. Providers in those states could be forced to shut down if they have to handle both the demonstration and the pandemic at the same time, according to the lobbyists, who are also reaching out to lawmakers for help in the event CMS doesn’t change its mind.

“This is going to be a logistical and clinical nightmare on top of a serious pandemic where people are already taxed to the max physically and mentally. I want to make it clear we didn’t expect this to go away, we just didn’t expect it to come back in the middle of the biggest public health crisis of our generation,” said Tim Rogers, president and CEO of the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina and chair of the Council of State Home Care & Hospice State Associations.

Click here to read the full article on the Inside Health Policy website.