Seniors may have to pay for Medicare home health care to discourage patients from using it.

[Better Believe It]

Seniors may have to pay for Medicare home health
Staff of advisory panel suggested $150 charge for a series of related visits
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
The Associated Press
January 13, 2011

WASHINGTON — Medicare recipients could see a new out-of-pocket charge for home health visits if Congress follows through on a recommendation issued Thursday by its own advisory panel.

Until now, home health visits from nurses and other providers have been free of charge to patients, but the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission says a copayment is needed to discourage overuse of a service whose cost to taxpayers is nearing $20 billion a year. Medicare charges copays for many other services, so home health has been the exception, not the rule.

More than 3 million seniors and disabled people on Medicare use home health services — visits from nurses, personal care attendants and therapists, available to those who can't easily get out of the house.

Numerous studies have shown that even modest copayments can discourage patients from getting medical services. The new charge would be collected for each home health agency admission, not for every visit by a nurse or provider. Patients can be under home health care for weeks at a time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41063495/ns/health-health_care

Looks like they are getting an early start on budget cuts that will impact the elderly. This should reduce the use of home health care visit.

What's next on the chopping block? BBI

[Cleita]

1. I think it's even more nefarious than that.

Apparently, seniors will still be able to go to a nursing home even though it's more expensive for Medicare. It makes me wonder if lobbyists for the nursing home industry are behind this.

[swilton]

15. Although I don't follow this and as an approaching 'senior'

I probably should, I have seen more than a few articles on the corpratization of nursing homes...This would not surprise me. And it seems that this would be fertile turf for the life insurance industry which seems to want to peddle long term health care as a new form of insurance.

[Cleita]

16. Actually you can buy stock on many of the nursing

home corporations. My broker tried to sell me some a few years back. I was appalled, but seniors are being traded on Wall Street, not only with our Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D benefits but many nursing homes as well. Your tax dollars are providing welfare for the corporations. Disgusting, isn't it?

[somone]

2. Many seniors will die from this

but there is plenty of money for banksters

[Rhiannon12866]

3. So much for the effort to allow seniors to stay in their homes...

:grr:

[begin_within]

4. Well, if that was in place 6 years ago, my Mom wouldn't be walking today.

We had home health care here for quite a while after my Mom had a mild stroke, and thanks to the therapy, she learned to walk again. I believe if we hadn't have had that she would be essentially crippled today. So is it really worth the savings if they cut that benefit?

[Gman]

5. discourage=prevent

is what they are really saying in many cases.

[xchrom]

6. Recommend - I find this horrifying from personal experience. Nt

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. My 92-year-old mother recovering from a stroke would be dead today without that.

They came out for the regular scheduled visit one day and noticed her blood pressure suddenly dropped dramatically while they were there checking her. The ambulance was there in no time, and she made it after a few days in the hospital. They also helped her learn to talk some and communicate with us after she came home from her first stroke.

[Sinistrous]

8. The fee for home health care visits was waved as a cost-saving

measure. Home health care was encouraged because it was many, many tiems less expensive than placing people who could not completely care for themselves in a hospital or long-term care facility. Discouraging use of home health care will cause a huge increase in the cost of caring for this set of patients.

...A stupid, stupid, counterproductive proposal.

That, in addition to its grotesque inhumanity.

[DrDan]

9. such shallow thinking on the part of our legislators

but, what's new.

In addition, the savings are about 5 weeks costs of the wars. Ending these would be near the top of the list if they were truly serious about saving some money.

[Cass]

10. This is just wrong and cruel....it is a vital service for so many seniors.

There's plenty of money for tax cuts for billionaires but not so much for the elderly who need a little assistance.

:grr:

[Raine]

11. Asolutely HORRIFYING! I don't what I would've done without

home health care during the last six months of my father's life. It was such a miracle to have them and I think my father would've died much much sooner without them. They were such a help to me, I could never have done what they did. They were also such a help relieving some of the stress I was under. It makes me sick to think people will be deprived of such a needed and necessary service.

[Better Believe It]

12. The attack on Medicare has officially begun. The government is just getting warmed up.

The bi-partisan deficit cutting will be achieved on the backs of the elderly and working people.

Change only the rich can believe in.

[CTyankee]

18. That's exactly what Grayson said! Remember his chart about Republican Health Care plan?

"Die quickly. Die sooner."

[Better Believe It]

13. Kick

[Moondog]

14. And so it begins. Right after the election. I'm shocked,

shocked, I tell you. Bastards.

[justiceischeap]

17. Going to say something that's probably going to be unpopular

First, I want to say the following: My parents are on medicare, my mom is battling cancer and medicare is paying for her treatments. My parents are well below the poverty line, I think my mom gets $300 monthly for SS and my dad gets maybe $500. If they lost their medicare (they're already having a hard time paying for medications since the co-pays have gone up), it wouldn't be long before they'd both died from the many things that ail them.

That said, we need to do something to fund SS and medicare because let's face it, when these programs were originally started, life expectancy wasn't as long as it is now, medical costs weren't as much, litigation not as often, and prescription drugs not nearly as expensive. I'm not saying the above option is the what's going to fix this, but money needs to come from somewhere and if we think the government is going to stop the wars to fund social programs, you're sadly mistaken.

It's a horrible situation with no real solutions without everyone chipping in and we know the cons and baggers don't want to help anyone. The rich still want their tax breaks, no one wants raised taxes even though that's one of the many things we need to do to help the economy.

[CTyankee]

19. If your parents are well below the poverty line, wouldn't they qualify for Medicaid?

[justiceischeap]

21. Maybe that's what they're on, I always get the two mixed up. (eom)

[CTyankee]

22. The OP is about this cut from Medicare. I'm sure that your parents are on Medicaid and

that is not being cut (at least for now). I'm not sure how the two work together but everyone over the age of 65 gets Medicare. The poor of every age are given Medicaid benefits.

[NNN0LHI]

20. Anyone ever hear of Evergreen Health Care?

There is a representative from this company that has been chasing after my elderly mother for months now to sign up for home health care visits. She doesn't need home health care visits. But she knows someone else who gets it so now she has to have it too. The representative tells her he works for Social Security which he doesn't and that the the doctor and nurse who he sends to the house will dust her blinds that she can't reach herself which they won't.

This has turned into a real nightmare for my brother and I.

Don