Federal Medicare reform touches Colorado
Colorado’s home health care agencies are feeling the adverse effects of federal rules designed to cut Medicare costs. Though Medicare costs have been reduced, many agencies that provide home nursing care have found the changes financially unfeasible. Since the Interim Payment System (IPS) rules were implemented in 1997, 59 of the state’s home health care agencies — about 25% — have closed. Fourteen have closed since March.
Medicare payments to home health care agencies have been reduced by about 30% under IPS, which is a part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA). A study from George Washington University, in Washington, DC, commissioned by the National Association for Home Care and the Home Health Services and Staffing Association, surveyed 28 home care companies in nine states: California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Two-thirds of the agencies surveyed reported they were lowering the proportion of very ill Medicare patients they serve. Measures taken by those agencies include turning away patients likely to need longer-term or repeat care, firing specialists to avoid attracting patients with complex problems, and implementing marketing plans that attract patients who are likely to recover quickly.
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