CONGRESS MUST STOP CUTS TO MEDICARE HOME HEALTHCARE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have proposed an alarming set of cuts to Medicare home health services.

0%

cut, which equals $1.33 billion cut in 2023 alone.

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in additional cuts in 2024.

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cut over the next 10 years.

These cuts will have severe impacts on both American seniors and healthcare providers. If the Medicare home health program is cut, overall costs of care will go up due to increased hospital readmission rates, unnecessary hospitalizations, and increased use of nursing home stays.

At a time when both demand for home health and the costs of delivering care are on the rise, Medicare’s proposal will significantly limit access to patient-preferred home health, especially among America’s rural and medically underserved seniors.

Access to Medicare home healthcare is vital to the health, safety, and rehabilitation of older Americans. National polling shows widespread and deep support for Medicare home healthcare services and the need to prevent Medicare home health cuts:

 

97% of Medicare beneficiaries

want the federal government to maintain Medicare coverage for at-home healthcare to allow seniors to recover and rehabilitate at home.

9 in 10 senior voters, Medicare beneficiaries, and caregivers for older Americans

believe it is important for Congress to pass legislation opposing CMS' proposed payment cuts to Medicare home health services.

Fortunately, Congress is taking action to stop these cuts.

Bipartisan lawmakers have introduced the Preserving Access to Home Health Act of 2022 (S. 4605/H.R. 8581) to prevent the proposed cuts to home health from taking effect prior to 2026. 

Specifically, the Preserving Access to Home Health Act will make the following policy changes:

  1. Prevent CMS from implementing any permanent or temporary adjustment to home health prospective payment rates prior to 2026. This would delay cuts currently proposed by CMS for 2023 and beyond, allowing more time for CMS to refine its proposed approach to determining budget neutrality in home health.
  2. Ensure that any adjustments CMS determines to be necessary to offset increases or decreases in estimated aggre­gate expenditures are made by 2032, such that no cuts would be delayed beyond the end of the budget window.
  3. The legislation is intended to be self-implementing. It would become effective as of the date of enactment and includes instructions allowing for implementation by program instruction or other means.

Act Now:

Ask your Members of Congress to support the Preserving Access to Home Health Act.

Email Your Lawmakers

The home healthcare community stands united in our opposition to these cuts and in our support of this legislative solution.

Congress: Please Protect Medicare Home Health Providers and Patients!