News Briefs
News Briefs
Is BBA relief in sight?
Despite testimony from the Health Care Finan-cing Administration (HCFA), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the General Accounting Office (GAO) claiming that there is a lack of evidence pointing to the ill effects of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) on patients’ access to care, Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), chair of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, has vowed to aid those providers who have been negatively impacted by the BBA.
The Subcommittee recently heard testimony from a group of home care-related agencies as to the impact of the BBA. HCFA testified that it is increasing the length of time in which agencies have to repay IPS-related (interim payment system) overpayments to three years, one year of which will be interest-free. Additionally, HCFA will cap surety bond values for home health agencies at $50,000 and will also delay the surety bond requirement until Oct. 1, 2000.
One of the testimonies came from Nancy Roberts, president and CEO of Kent County Visiting Nurse Association in Warwick, RI. Among her recommendations: eliminate the 15% payment cut scheduled for Oct. 1, 2000, create an outlier provision under IPS to allow home health agencies to serve higher cost patients, increase the per-visit limits, offer relief from overpayments, and repeal the 15-minute incremental visit billing requirement.
To a similar end, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced S 1582, the Health Care Preservation Act of 1999. The overall effect of this bill would be to restore some $20 billion to $10 billion for hospitals and $10 billion to other health care providers such as home health agencies in Medicare funding over the next five years.
The proposed legislation includes a delay in the 15% home health spending reduction to Oct. 1, 2001, if PPS isn’t implemented on Oct. 1, 2000; the elimination of the 15-minute incremental billing requirement; an increase in the per-visit cost limits to 112% of the median; and a 36-month, interest-free period in which to repay IPS-related overpayments.
Organizations announce mergers and acquisitions
Eaton Rapids (MI) Community Hospital has signed a letter of intent to merge with Flint, MI-based McLaren Health Care Corp. sometime within the next six months. Eaton has 27 beds, and the merger would give McLaren, which is pursuing an affiliation with the 222-bed North Oakland Medical Center in Pontiac, MI, for a total of five hospitals.
UniMed Management Co., a subsidiary of UniHealth Foundation in Burbank, CA, is selling three of its six Southern California medical groups. The groups in Oxnard and Buenaventura are to be purchased by Premier Practice Management in San Diego. Also, Epic Management bought back UniMed’s 50% stake in the third group, Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, for which it acts as an operating company.
Home health closings: 2,500 and counting
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) recently released the findings of its Online Survey Certification and Reporting System (OSCAR) which say that 2,486 home health parent agencies have closed since the implementation in October 1997 of the interim payment system.
This figure is considerably higher than previous estimates, which placed closings somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,400 as of Jan. 1, 1999. Not only is the number of closings higher than believed, but it also seems that the rate of closings is accelerating. In December 1997, 36 agencies a month were closing; by August 1999 that number had risen to 108 closures per month, according to an analysis of the study’s findings conducted by the National Association for Home Care.
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