HCAC President Sonya Neumann said, "Sen. Salazar serves on a very key and powerful Senate Finance Committee in the U.S. Senate and is in a position to make vital and critical decisions on the future of Medicare and Home Health in this country." He appreciates the work you do and knows the importance of home health especially in rural Colorado such as San Luis Valley where he grew up, she added.

Sen. Salazar needs to hear from his constituents in Colorado. HCAC members are encouraged to attend town hall meetings while he and other members of the Congressional Delegation are home for the Memorial Day recess through June 2nd. And you may send Sen. Salazar a message by going directly to his web site email contact page at http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm.

The National Association for Home Care and Hospice recommends the following wording for a letter to Colorado's elected representatives. (If you need help in identifying your congressional representatives, have your zip code available and click here. For a complete list of the state's congressional delegation with contact information, click here.  Simply fill in the blank space on line three, then cut and paste the text onto your agency letterhead, and personalize and modify as you wish to explain WHY these issues are important to your agency and your Medicare patients:

On behalf of thousands of Medicare home health beneficiaries, their families and care providers in Colorado, including the __________ (#) elderly, frail and disabled clients served by our home care agency, I am seeking your immediate help to ensure adequate and appropriate payment for home health services.

Recently, the President submitted to Congress his fiscal year 2009 budget proposal. The President's budget would take some $82 million from Medicare home health spending in Colorado and $11.03 billion nationally by freezing payments over five years (FY09-FY13) and instituting a permanent cut in the inflation update of 0.65 percent thereafter. The President's budget makes no provision for reinstating the five percent add-on payment for home health services in rural areas, which expired January 1, 2007. 

These cuts would come on top of billions in additional cuts to home health imposed by the Administration through regulation. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administratively has promulgated a 2.75 percent across-the-board rate reduction for home health services for 2008, 2009, and 2010, as well as a 2.71 percent cut for 2011. Over the next five years (2009-13), this provision would reduce outlays for Medicare home health in Colorado by nearly $600 million and nationally by $7.59 billion. This reduction is based on an unfounded allegation by CMS that case mix weights have increased without attendant changes in patient characteristics, referred to by CMS as "case mix creep or upcoding."

If both of these proposals were to pass, nearly 2/3 of Colorado agencies will be operating at a negative profit margin within five years.

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Robert Casey (D-PA) and Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) have introduced the "Home Health Care Access Protection Act" (S. 2181 / H.R. 3865) to block implementation of these regulatory cuts and require a transparent new process and criteria for evaluating case mix changes.

Thank you for your support of home care in Colorado. I urge you to help us by supporting a full market basket inflation update for all Medicare home health agencies, a 5% rural add-on payment for rural home health agencies, and further, I ask that you cosponsor S. 2181 / H.R. 3865.

Sincerely,

(name)
(agency
(address)

* * * * * * *

In addition, you are urged to go to the NAHC web site and explore the section on "Legislative Issues" listed on the banner of the home page. The following link should take you directly to the Legislative Issues section:

http://www.congressweb.com/nahc/index.htm