Lincoln Chafee: “I am pleased to sponsor the Medicare Home Health Equity Act of 1998 with my distinguished colleague from Maine. I want…”

“I am pleased to sponsor the Medicare Home Health Equity Act of 1998 with my distinguished colleague from Maine. I want to applaud Senator Collins' efforts to correct a provision in the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 which has had the effect of penalizing those home health agencies that have taken the lead in becoming more cost-efficient over the last several years. The Medicare Home Health Equity Act of 1998 will help avert the potentially devastating effect of the Interim Payment System (IPS), established by the Balanced Budget Act, on many home health agencies in Rhode Island, and throughout the country. The IPS for Medicare home health services that was established by the BBA bases its reimbursement in large part on agency-specific costs during fiscal year 1994. Consequently, home health agencies that had already been implementing cost-efficient practices at that time, like many agencies in Rhode Island were doing, are now finding their reimbursements greatly reduced. Home health agencies in my home state have told me that this decreased reimbursement, in addition to being unfair, might lead to reductions in critical health services that currently enable elderly patients to maintain their dignity and quality of life. These agencies also have pointed out that this interim payment system may well result in a loss of jobs in the home health industry.”