AAHomecare: Medicare Spending Chart Reveals that Home Care Is Not the Problem
AAHomecare has reported many times that home care is the most cost-effective setting for health care — a fact that is amply documented in medical literature. In addition, home care spending represents a very modest proportion of the total Medicare budget.
The chart illustrates how home medical equipment expenditures and home health expenditures in Medicare over the past decade represent small fractions of the Medicare budget. Demand for home care has increased along with the medical needs of a growing population of older Americans. But spending for home care is clearly not the problem with Medicare. In fact, it's part of the solution.
The CMS National Health Expenditure chart is posted on the front page of AAHomecare's Web site at www.aahomecare.org.
Hobson-Tanner Bill Update: 95 Cosponsors
In other news reported by AAHomecare, three new co-sponsors have been added to the Hobson-Tanner bill, H.R. 3559 bringing the official list to 95. The recent additions include:
- Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.)
- Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas)
- Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)
AAHomecare Association Chair Tom Ryan urged providers to get involved in what he termed "the battle of our lives" on Capitol Hill. "We need to be a unifying force and make it known on the hill that home care is the solution," Ryan said, urging providers to help obtain additional co-sponsors for the Hobson-Tanner bill (H.R. 3559). The bill is expected to alleviate some of the impact of competitive bidding by ensuring beneficiary access. The bill needs 200 co-sponsors.
Regional and state home medical equipment associations including California (CAMPS) and Texas (MESA) as well as individual members have been advocating on this key issue. For the full list, see www.aahomecare.org, under Advocacy Updates.
This article originally appeared in the April 2006 issue of HME Business.