Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support two bills that I have introduced that will help to preserve and to expand access to home healthcare.

I have been a strong supporter of home care since my very first home visit early in my Senate service. This experience gave me the opportunity to meet and to visit with home healthcare patients, where I saw firsthand what a difference highly skilled, caring visiting nurses and other healthcare professionals make in the lives of patients and their families. I have been a passionate advocate of home healthcare ever since.

The highly skilled and compassionate care that home health agencies provide in the State of Maine and across the country have enabled millions of our most frail and vulnerable individuals to avoid hospitals and nursing homes and to stay just where they want to be--in the comfort, privacy, and security of their own homes.

As we look to the future, home health services will continue to be in high demand. The Census projects that by the year 2030, the proportion of U.S. residents older than age 65 will have nearly doubled from 2010.

The Home Health Payment Innovation Act, which I have introduced with Senator Stabenow, Senator Kennedy, Senator Jones, Senator Cassidy, and Senator Paul, preserves access to existing home health services under the Medicare Program, while also providing a pathway for innovative approaches to using these vital services. This bipartisan legislation is endorsed by the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, as well as by the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare.

Our bill would make two key adjustments in home health payment reform provisions that were passed last year. First, it would prevent unwarranted payment rate cuts by basing any behavioral adjustments on actual evidence. Second, it would limit the risk of disruption in care by providing a phase-in for any necessary rate increases or decreases. This phase-in is critical for home health providers, as CMS has already proposed cutting Medicare payment rates in 2020 by more than $1 billion in the first year alone, based purely on assumptions of changes in behavior.

Our bill also provides the pathway to expanded use of home healthcare in the Medicare Program without increasing program spending

It provides flexibility on waiving what is called the ``homebound requirement'' for home health services when a plan or innovative care delivery model, such as an accountable care organization, determines that providing care to the patient in the home would improve outcomes and reduce spending on patient care.

As plans and providers continue to experiment with innovative ways to deliver care and improve value in Medicare spending, allowing them the flexibility to waive this limitation--the homebound limitation--will help to advance the goals of ensuring that care is delivered at the right time, in the right place, and at the right cost.

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