Bob Menendez: “the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 put the home health care industry on a prospective payment system, and set up an interim…”

“the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 put the home health care industry on a prospective payment system, and set up an interim payment system for agencies until the prospective payment system could be fully implemented. Unfortunately, those home health agencies which have historically been fiscally responsible in their administration of federal dollars have been penalized for good program management. In my state of New Jersey, the home health industry has been aggressive in its management of resources. New Jersey's annual average for visits per beneficiary served is only 39.7. The national average is 66 visits per year, and some states have numbers as high as 125 visits per beneficiary! So the message has been that it doesn't pay to be prudent with federal dollars. HCFA's regulations have not so much penalized those states which have had excessive costs as they have mandated that all states--including those states with the lowest number of beneficiary visits--bear the financial costs in an across-the-board distribution of the effort to rein in the costs for this industry. The bill we are adopting today, H.R. 4567, is a step in the right direction. However, there is a basic sense of fairness which is missed in the ``hold harmless'' provisions.”