Chris Pappas: “Judy Stanley and Steve Snyder approached me last December about an issue which prompted my introducing of H.R. 3567…”

“Judy Stanley and Steve Snyder approached me last December about an issue which prompted my introducing of H.R. 3567, gained 106 cosponsors and I have worked hard to find a solution to the problems the home health IPSs cause New Jersey and other states. Let me thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) and their staffs for all their hard work. I will support the compromise as a needed step to move forward but I am disappointed that the bill does not do more to improve the viability of low cost agencies. This bill does not curb the spending patterns of older agencies that have had high costs. Addressing that issue is an important part of preparing the home health industry for perspective payment. It also does not address the automatic 15 percent reduction in reimbursement. Finally, I am hopeful that the final product will contain retroactivity, which CBO has already scored as costing $200 million. Narrowly tailoring retroactive relief to low cost States or regions would reduce this cost even more. I encourage my colleagues to see if these remaining issues can be addressed in the final package and I urge my colleagues to support it.”