Plotting the Road Map

With the dust settling in Washington, it's easier to see the legislative and regulatory landscape for 2005. The president has delivered his fiscal year 2006 budget. Congressional committees and agendas are taking shape to tackle legislative priorities of the 109th Congress. Meanwhile, AAHomecare is looking at the road maps — as well as potential roadblocks — to stronger home care.

To move home care forward, we must consider the most pressing needs of patients and providers as well as the avenues that will allow us to get there by working with Congress and the administration. AAHomecare member committees and leadership have identified several key priorities for 2005:

• Protect home medical equipment and home health from further cuts in any legislation passed during 2005.

• Counter competitive bidding in light of recent reimbursement cuts and expand focus on the CMS Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC) on competitive bidding.

• Protect the dispensing fee amount of $57 for inhalation drug therapies, which we worked hard to secure in 2004.

• Maintain the market basket increase and rural add-on for home health services and oppose copayments for home health.

• Preserve current reimbursement for stationary oxygen systems in light of efforts to move to a modality-specific payment model.

• Change the exclusionary rule, which unfairly compares Medicare and private charges and could exclude from the Medicare program any providers whose charges are considered excessive based on that comparison.

This list will likely evolve as conditions, threats and opportunities change in Washington.

So far this year, AAHomecare has concentrated its efforts on presenting home care as the solution — not the scapegoat — for rising health care needs and expenditures. Home care can celebrate clearing the first hurdle of the year: avoiding hits in the proposed 2006 budget. The home care community of patients and providers was not singled out for reimbursement cuts. For that we can thank our “congressional champions” in Washington, those senators and representatives who have strengthened and elevated home care issues to the level they deserve.

Where the president's fiscal year 2006 budget and congressional debates do focus on health care costs for seniors and the disabled, AAHomecare will continue to argue that home care is a patient-preferred and cost-effective solution to the nation's growing health care crisis.