The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare (the Partnership) commends Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) for recently sending a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure underscoring the value of Medicare home health and urging CMS to consider the importance of home health as it develops payment policy for 2025.
In the letter to CMS, Senators Stabenow and Collins wrote:
“The Medicare home health benefit delivers essential services to seniors and people with disabilities who are homebound and require skilled nursing or rehabilitative care… Home care is cost-effective, high-quality, and patient-preferred, and home health agencies work every day to deliver critical services to Medicare beneficiaries.
“We appreciate CMS’s commitment to helping people get the care they need, where they need it. This must include home health services for people with Medicare. As CMS proceeds to develop Medicare home health payment rates for 2025, we urge you to consider the value home health care provides to the Medicare program and its beneficiaries.
“Home health services are a lifeline for seniors, people with disabilities, those with limited mobility, and their family members. Ensuring access to this care should be among CMS’s highest priorities.”
Senators Stabenow and Collins are lead Senate sponsors of the Preserving Access to Home Health Act (S. 2137), legislation to prevent CMS from implementing additional payment cuts to Medicare home health. Specifically, the bill is designed to address deep cuts made to home health by CMS that began this year and will continue until at least 2028.
“Senators Stabenow and Collins are true champions for Medicare home health, and we applaud their continued leadership to protect the Medicare benefit and access to home-based healthcare for older Americans,” said Joanne Cunningham, CEO of the Partnership. “We urge CMS to listen to the Senators’ advice to ensure beneficiary access to home health is prioritized in their rulemaking.”
To read the Stabenow-Collins letter to CMS, click here.
About PQHH
The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare represents community- and hospital-based home healthcare agencies across the U.S. and is dedicated to developing innovative reforms to improve the quality, efficiency, and integrity of home healthcare. To learn more, visit www.pqhh.org.
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