Home Health Update: Physicians Lobby Against Medicare Fee Cuts
It looks like physicians are realizing what all of us in home health have known for the past eleven years: major cuts in Medicare payments hurt.
With Congress returning next week for a lame duck session, doctors and the AMA are stepping up their campaign to press lawmakers to put off the major reductions in Medicare payments that are scheduled to take effect in December 2010. If Congress does not act, physicians who treat the elderly under the federal program will see a 23% cut in their fees starting December 1, 2010.
Anyone who works in home health is intimately familiar with how cuts in Medicare and Medicaid negatively impact the wellbeing of patients, as well as the ability to stay in business. More than ever, seniors and the poor are falling through the cracks. Up until recently, these vital government programs have been there to cover acute and chronic illnesses. With these new proposed cuts, that safety net may no longer exist for a large portion of our population, many of them elderly.
If these cuts go through, Medicare recipients may have trouble finding a health care provider who will treat them. With fewer and fewer physicians accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients, it will be harder and harder for home health agencies to find physicians to sign off on patient orders so that you can get paid. These payments are vital for your bottom line.
As I have mentioned before on this blog, giving nurses with advanced training the opportunity to work as independent decision makers might be the just what is needed to ameliorate some of the hardships that will be caused by these cuts.
Currently, the AMA is asking Congress to defer the cuts for thirteen months. While this will help slow the tide, it will not fix the cracks in the system. As doctors continue to scale back their care of Medicare patients, home health agencies must be prepared to fill in the gaps.
Look for more posts in the future about what home health can do to overcome new obstacles and find positive, productive ways to stay successful. If you want to know when these articles are posted, please subscribe to the Kenyon Connects RSS feed. It’s a great way to stay connected.
Category: Ginny's Blog, Healthcare Reform