We All Share Common Challenges

I like to think that the home care community is one big family, all in the same boat. We are, of course. But it’s also easy to see the industry as a diverse collection of different and sometimes opposing interests. For instance, at a glance, the home health and the durable medical equipment sectors may not seem to have much in common.

So it’s useful to remember, as a large and important community, what we do have in common. By speaking with a unified voice as often as we can, we can help our important policy and advocacy messages to ring loudly, clearly and memorably in Washington.

Here are the three essential characteristics we share:

1. The Home Care Patient We all serve patients who receive quality care in their homes, which is a broad and a powerful bond. The location of our patients distinguishes us in important ways in the eyes of the public and in terms of how care is provided and paid for. This connects all of our lines of business, services, therapies and products. As providers and professionals in home care, we also represent a trend toward providing cost-effective care that can help the nation address spiraling health care costs as well as the unique needs of the growing ranks of older Americans. Just as we have home care champions in Congress who go to bat for us, you are the champions of home care patients in your communities. Let’s not lose sight of that.
2. Immediate Challenges to Reimbursement and Access to Care Recent government legislation and regulations have targeted specific therapies and items for drastic cuts in Medicare reimbursement. Examples include the cuts for certain durable medical equipment items scheduled to start in January, the deep cuts proposed for inhalation therapies and expiration of the rural add-on for home health. While it’s important to fight for your niche, it’s also important to strengthen the larger home care community.
3. Continuing Evolution in Home Care There are more challenges down the road. As provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act continue to kick in, we will face a possible massive shift away from fee-for-service under the Medicare Advantage program. Under current federal budget conditions, we can all be sure of continuing financial pressures.

At the same time, there will be ample opportunities to create new alliances, use new technologies and strategies and look for new ways of providing home care.

It’s a lot to ask to expand your scope of advocacy. It’s hard enough keeping up with proposed legislation, new regs, Notices of Proposed Rule Making and the related details that directly affect your business. But think of the larger family of providers and manufacturers who are also in this home care boat.

All DME firms should be working — right now — to line up cosponsors and moral support for H.R. 4491, the Hobson-Ford bill to repeal the reimbursement cuts to oxygen, nebulizers, hospital beds, wheelchairs, diabetic supplies and air mattresses starting in January of 2005. But home health providers have a stake in that, too.

Likewise, many home health providers are working — right now — to shore up support for H.R. 4902, introduced by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to extend the 5 percent home health rural add-on for an additional two years to March of 2007. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has a companion bill, S. 2659. But DME firms also have a stake in those bills.

Both bills have solid, bipartisan support, as does the Congressional COPD Caucus, another important cause that links all sectors of the home care community. So call and write your members of Congress today. Remember what’s at stake if we don’t respond together: the health of our patients — and the health of our business.

Kay Cox is president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare, Alexandria, Va. For more information about AAHomecare, visit www.aahomecare.org, or call 703/836-6263.