Political Quotes

“I rise today with my colleague from Washington, Senator Cantwell, to introduce the Preserve Access to Medicare Rural Home Health Services Act of 2015. This legislation would extend the modest increase in payments for home health services in rural areas that otherwise will expire on January 1 of 2018. Home health has become an increasingly important part of our health care system. The kinds of highly skilled--and often technically complex--services that our nation's home health caregivers provide have enabled millions of our most frail and vulnerable older and disabled citizens to avoid hospitals and nursing homes and stay just where they want to be--in the comfort, privacy, and security of their own homes. I have accompanied several of Maine's caring home health nurses on their visits to patients and have seen first hand the difference that they are making for patients and their families. Surveys have shown that the delivery of home health services in rural areas can be as much as 12 to 15 percent more costly because of the extra travel time required to cover long distances between patients, higher transportation expenses, and other factors. Because of the longer travel times, rural caregivers are unable to make as many visits in a day as their urban counterparts. For example, home health care agencies in Aroostook County in Northern Maine, where I am from, cover almost 6,700 square miles, with an average population of fewer than 11 persons per square mile.…”