Susan Collins: “The Senator, as always, is entirely correct. I know how concerned he has been that inadequate reimbursements under…”

“The Senator, as always, is entirely correct. I know how concerned he has been that inadequate reimbursements under Medicare, plus regulatory overkill by HCFA, are really jeopardizing the provision of care in our rural hospitals and our home health care agencies. In fact, we know the Balanced Budget Act is already producing--or expected to produce--four times the savings that we intended when the 1997 Balanced Budget Act was passed. Moreover--and I know the Senator from Kansas shares my deep concern about this--looming on the horizon, believe it or not, is an additional 15-percent cutback in home health care reimbursements. That will put our already struggling home health agencies at risk. I know the Senator from Kansas shares my belief that it would, if allowed to go into effect, seriously jeopardize access to care for millions of our Nation's seniors. The effects of these home health care cuts have been particularly devastating to the State of Maine. In Maine, I would inform my colleague from Kansas, nearly 7,500 Maine seniors have lost access to home health care due to the cutbacks and the regulatory overkill by HCFA. Those 7,500 seniors did not get well. That is not why they lost their access to home health care. In fact, what has happened is some of them have been forced prematurely into nursing homes or they are at risk of increased hospitalization, which ironically costs the Medicare trust fund more money than if they were still receiving home health care.”