Possible Medicare hospice budget cuts

NHPOC recently came out with this Public Policy Alert that dealt with the President's budget proposal and the possibility that hospice funding would be cut. Here is the key section:

In the past, when Congress has faced similar budget challenges, they enacted across-the-board cuts in various market basket updates (including hospice), in addition to specific programmatic cuts. It is important to remember that budgetary cuts in challenging fiscal periods are not a reflection of the value of a specific program essential services can be cut. At this point, it is too early to predict exactly how Congress and the Administration will address these issues.

Last week, Don Schumacher attended the Home Care 100 Executive Management Conference in Manalapan, FL. A number of leaders from home care and hospice were in attendance, including several NHPCO provider members. Don reported that one of the major issues for discussion revolved around impending cuts by the Administration to bring the budget deficit under control. Among his observations, Don remarked, The threat of cuts was a hot topic at the meeting. In his address, former CMS Administrator Tom Scully warned healthcare providers that there will be cuts and to be prepared.

I've said it once, and I'll say it a million more times. Please be smart about these cuts. I'm begging. Cut the hospice benefit for someone living in a nursing home by 50% and leave the home patients alone! I know the big corporate hospices who can actually afford to pay a lobbyist are going to tell you that you shouldn't do that, but that is only because they are making a killing off of nursing home patients. Check their nursing home/home patient ratios and you'll see that they are only in the business because they figured out that you are paying hospices too much money to care for nursing home patients.

Be smart about your cuts. I know it's easier to use a big sword and make across the board cuts, but this is a time when using the scalpel could save Medicare millions of dollars and still allow an industry to do the work that it was created to do.