CSPAN and Homecare in Reform

The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) had a representative on CSPAN this past weekend discussing the merits of homecare and dispelling some myths and recently miss-reported facts about the reimbursement cuts endured by our industry sub-sector in the last ten years.
You can access the 30 minute segment, on CSPAN’s website, by CLICKING HERE.
Healthcare continues to get a lot of national coverage as the debate on reform winds it way through the various government agencies responsible for legislating and crafting bills examine and change their proposals. I have repeated from the outset to everyone from White House officials to Governor’s, Congressman and Senators, that reform should respect and enhance the role of homecare in our country, because;
1. It is the patient preferred method for care delivery; American’s want to be at home as much as is clinically feasible
2. It is the lowest cost setting for care delivery; homecare is more economical in the short and long term than any other care setting
3. Homecare reduces the risk of hospital borne illness and infection; speaking to both the patients wants and needs and the cost of treating hospital acquired infections
4. Homecare agencies and providers live on the front lines during natural emergencies such as blizzards, power outages, hurricanes, etc. reducing the need to deploy emergency services and overwhelm emergency rooms
I haven’t seen any legislative recognition yet of the above facts; numerous officials, from President Obama to Senator Kennedy have cited the need for homecare and the special role it plays. However there is little official language that has been proposed to strengthen the role of homecare or undo much of the damage that has been done in the last decade – as well as reverse some key provisions in bills which have yet to be enacted, but promise to have a debilitating effect on the homecare infrastructure of our nation.
This represents the difference between a stump speech and actual policy making; to date many public officials seem happy to bloviate on the benefits of homecare or talk about how they have a family member who benefitted from the great services we provide, but when things get into the thorny mess that is legislation and law-making, they abandon that talk in favor of cutting reimbursement to ensure their large political donors get taken care of. (Obviously this is heavy editorializing, but the fact is most proposals put forward in the last several years have used cuts to homecare products and services to pay for items that make-up a much larger percentage of national health expenditures; hospitals, HMO’s, physicians, etc.)
It’s time we as a nation recognize the inherent value homecare provides and ensure that as we modify our healthcare system we use the experience and expertise of homecare providers to strengthen and sustain the system moving forward…no good can come of a system which cannot support itself, and the relative value of homecare, financially and emotionally, ensures that a system built around it will be fiscally sustainable and reap the benefits of high user satisfaction.