Engel Gains Support to Close Home Infusion Benefit Gap

The National Home Infusion Association applauded Rep. Eliot
Engel, D-N.Y., last week for his support of health care legislation
that would close the Medicare home infusion benefit gap.

At a June 24 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on
health care reform, Engel asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for
her support in driving the “Medicare Home Infusion Therapy
Coverage Act of 2009” (H.R. 574)–and he got it, according to
a statement from the NHIA. 

The legislation would close a gap under which the medications
used in home infusions are covered, but not the services, supplies
or equipment needed to deliver the therapy. Engel and Rep. Timothy
Murphy, R-Pa., reintroduced the bill in January, and companion
legislation (S. 254) was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Blanche
Lincoln, D-Ark., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

At the hearing, Engel told the House committee the legislation
“addresses an anomaly in the Medicare program that forces
patients into hospitals and nursing homes to receive their
multi-week infusion therapy when the same care could be delivered
safely in the patient’s home. For decades, private health
insurance has covered home infusion therapy. It is used extensively
by Medicare Advantage plans. Medicaid programs cover it. But
Medicare fee-for-service stands alone in the failure to cover the
services, equipment and supplies needed for home infusion
therapy.” 

Engel got a commitment from Sebelius to work with Committee
Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on the legislation, the NHIA
said.

According to NHIA President Russell Bodoff,  “If
health care reform is to be successful, our country can no longer
support the Medicare practice of utilizing limited health care
dollars to keep patients in hospitals and nursing homes when it is
not medically needed and when it is contrary to the
physician’s advice and patient’s preference.”
 

For the text of the bill, go to thomas.loc.gov and
type H.R. 574 in the search bar.