NAHC,
I have received an email that a U.S. Senator sent out to his constituents recently about the importance of Home Health Care. In the email he includes the following:
At our hearing this week, Judith Stein, founder and Executive Director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, outlined this particular issue in her testimony saying,
"Access to Medicare home health aides is disappearing. Home health aides provide help with personal, hands-on care. The care is often key to the well-being of patients who want to age in place, as well as for their families and caregivers. Unfortunately, Medicare beneficiaries are often misinformed about Medicare home health coverage in general and home health aids in particular. They are told that it's for a short term, for a few weeks, for a bath from the home health aide, just for one to three times a week. Under the law, Medicare authorizes 28 to 35 hours a week of personal aides' home health care. Instead, this care is being shifted to state Medicare programs and families."
We have long heard about this requirement, but in my experience no agency delivers close to this level of care, nor do I see how it would be possible under the model. Rarely, in regards to Home Health Aide alone, we sometimes hear families asking about 28 hours of Home Health Aide. Our response is essentially that Medicare covers hands-on personal care services by the aide, but not home maker services. We typically provide 2-3 visits per week of HHA services at 1 hour each.
How are other agencies addressing this when the 28hours of benefit / home health Aide services comes up? Does NAHC have guidance that they can share?
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Brandon Blake
Frederick Health Home Care
Frederick MD
+1 (240) 566-3568
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