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Media Room
Pennsylvania Homecare Association Responds to Misinformation from Nursing Home Advocacy Group
The Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association (PHA) said today that a claim by nursing home interests that home health care is draining resources from nursing homes is “factually false and destructive to broad-based efforts to make limited public dollars go further in providing medical and health services for all Pennsylvanians.”
Vicki Hoak, the PHA director, said, “The nursing home industry has seen its reimbursement rates climb 22 percent in just the past five years. By contrast, home health care providers have not seen an increase in reimbursement rates for four years. Before that increase, the reimbursement rate had been stagnant for thirteen years.”
Click here for a copy of the press release.
Skyrocketing Fuel Prices Force Budget Crunch for Many Home Health Caregivers
In 2003, the last time the Commonwealth increased its reimbursement to home health care providers, gasoline was selling for $1.35 a gallon. Today, with gasoline at $3.30 and more in many parts of Pennsylvania, homecare agencies are still getting the same $77 per home visit and eating the skyrocketing cost of fuel or cutting corners in other areas. And, according to the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, providers are fresh out of corners to cut.
Homecare has been hailed by Gov. Edward G. Rendell as the “next big thing” to keep down the costs of health care by providing quality service, personal attention, and nursing skills without the overhead of large bricks-and-mortar institutions. But critical funding has not yet followed favorable reviews. The Commonwealth has increased the payment for home health care Medicaid recipients just once in the past 16 years. The current Medicaid reimbursement rate is $77, while the actual average cost per home visit according to a two-year-old study -- is $118, a $41 loss every time a nurse provides care to a patient. Record high gasoline prices have made the gap even wider.
Click here for a copy of the press release.
Home Healthcare Reimbursement Freeze is Barrier to Commonwealth Goal of Advancing Alternative Care
A freeze on the state’s reimbursement rate for home health care for the fifth straight year is raising the barrier to Gov. Ed Rendell’s desire to encourage alternatives to hospital and nursing home care, the head of the PA Homecare Association (PHA) said today.
The Commonwealth has increased the payment for home health care Medicaid recipients just once in the past 16 years. The current Medicaid reimbursement rate is $77, while the actual average cost per home visit is $118 – a $41 loss every time a nurse provides care to a patient.
The Pennsylvania Homecare Association is seeking a $10 million increase in the state’s 2008-09 budget allocation to increase the Medicaid reimbursement to $100 per visit for skilled services. The increase will help offset the cost of nursing care, rising gasoline prices, and workers’ compensation premiums for home health agencies. Last year alone, Pennsylvania home health agencies traveled more than 210 million miles and spent an additional $6.7 million in 2007 to help cover the rising gasoline costs.
“A raise in the reimbursement rate will help us bring in more nurses, and also provide more people with the comfort of being treated in their own home,” said Vicki Hoak, Pennsylvania Homecare Association executive director. “People who use home health care have a lower readmission rate to the hospital, and it costs less to provide home health care than to have a person remain in an inpatient facility.”
Click here for a copy of the press release.
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