HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of October 5

Senators Bash CMS Over Health Payment Cuts
Four U.S. Senators asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to withdraw proposed case mix cuts and value-based purchasing penalties in a letter dated Sept. 24. (Mary Kate Nelson/Home Health Care News)

More Health Systems Get in Insurance Game
Health insurance is a competitive and volatile business, as some health systems that have entered the market have painfully discovered. But they’re making the leap because the payoff is often a bump in revenue at a time of slow growth for hospitals. (Melanie Evans/Modern Healthcare)

Hospital Workers Find Solace in Pausing After a Death
For trauma workers like Jonathan Bartels, a nurse who has worked in emergency care and palliative care, witnessing death over and over again takes a toll. Over time, they can become numb or burned out. (Kara Lofton/Kaiser Health News)

Medicare’s $30M Ambulance Ride Mystery
Medicare paid $30 million for ambulance rides for which no record exists that patients got medical care at their destination, the place where they were picked up or anywhere else. (The Associated Press)

Home Care Workers Must Get Overtime in Colorado
While home health care agencies have been focused on how regulations could impact worker wages nationwide, a lawsuit in Colorado has moved the ball on the issue in the Rocky Mountain State. (Mary Kate Nelson/Home Health Care News)