AAHomecare: Bidding problems in the news

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 29, 2012—An article in the Skokie (Illinois) Review profiles the problems that Medicare’s bidding program has created for a type of walker used by beneficiaries with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. The article begins: “Jonathan Miller created a walker more than 20 years ago to help his mother, but once he developed that product into a Skokie business, it became indispensable for many with neurological diseases.”

But now, Miller said, a new Medicare Competitive Bid program is making it more difficult for people to get the product that helps them become more mobile. Since Medicare instituted the program in nine national markets last year, In-Step Mobility has had difficulty in making its product available. The company has tried to work with the medical stores awarded Medicare contracts directly, but has discovered a roadblock.” Read the full Skokie Review story here.

The New York Times “New Old Age” blog on Monday posted a touching story about the transformation of an apartment into—with the help of home medical equipment—a nursing home. The blogger, Linda Beeler, writes: “Gradually, I surrendered to the reality that my apartment had been turned into a nursing home. My mother now had an oxygen tank, a walker, a wheelchair, a shower chair, a commode, Depends and bed pads.

“Still, I had said from the beginning that I did not want a hospital bed in my home. Its name alone symbolized the transformation of my home into a hospital. But two days before my mother’s death, I relented. My mother could not get up from the bed that she had been using. She needed the adjustable bed to lift and transfer her.

With the arrival of that bed, I finally accepted the new reality: my home was indeed transformed into a nursing home, despite all my initial fears about living with my dying mother in that environment.”  Read the full “New Old Age” blog story here.

Good homecare helps to smooth the hospital discharge process and reduce hospitalizations. One of the serious concerns about Medicare’s bidding program is that it will result in longer hospital stays and more preventable readmissions to the hospital. Reducing returns to the hospital is one of the mechanisms in the Affordable Care Act that was designed to lower Medicare spending. The New York Times reports:

“With nearly one in five Medicare patients returning to the hospital within a month—about two million people a year—readmissions cost the government more than $17 billion annually.” See the full New York Times story here.

Also this week, the New York Times reported on deaths attributed to certain types of bed rails used in nursing homes and in some private homes. The paper reported that that: “While the use of the devices by hospitals and nursing homes has declined as professional caregivers have grown aware of the dangers, experts say dozens of older adults continue to die each year as more rails are used in home care and many health care facilities continue to use older rail models.”

Several experts from the home medical equipment sector are quoted in the story. Read the full New York Times article here. Also visit www.aahomecare.org.