Many health care professionals fear that the proposed health care program under the Obama administration would mean budget cuts to the home health care sector. Among those to be affected by the proposed measure are the Charlotte home health care sector, it was learned.
Gary Thietten, founder of the Idaho Home Health & Hospice warned that the government’s efforts to continue introducing budget cuts to government-run insurance systems, including Medicare would adversely effect the services provided to home health and hospice patients.
He said that 2010 may be the most challenging year for many hospices and home health care industries, such as the Charlotte home health care, as Congress try to introduce a health care program under President Barrack Obama’s plan or providing a near-universal health care to majority of Americans.
The budget cuts will also hit Medicare coverage, the government-subsidized health insurance system that many household rely on.
Democrat leaders in the U.S. The proposal involves a $24 billion reductioin in government subsidies to providers that care for homebound Medicare over the next 10 years. Some Senators pointed out that a cut on the home health care budget would be disastrous to the home health care industry.
For their part, the Republicans have suggested that reducing home health care budget and channeling it to the general population would have a negative effect on the most vulnerabiel sector of America’s society.
According to Thietten, “In 1998, payment for (Medicare) services changed so drastically and so abruptly it created a ripple across the nation. Idaho alone lost 30 percent of its providers.”
He argued that the cutbacks in funding would have the same effect as the 1998 policy when the provider availability was reduced in the state. He added that the government would be spending more as many elders who will be displaced from their home health care would move to h ospitals and other longer-term care options.
The National Association of Home Health Care and Hospice estimated the average per-visit Medicare charge for home health care at $132, compared to an average $5,765 daily charge for a hospital stay.
Thietten added he cannot understand the reasoning why the proposed cuts to home health care, such as the Charlotte home health care, are disproportionate to cuts affecting other providers.
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