FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 1997
No. HL-3
Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman, Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Medicare home health care, skilled nursing facility, and other post-acute care payment policy. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, March 4, 1997, in room 1310 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony will be heard from invited witnesses only. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND
Medicare payments to post-acute care providers continue to be the fastest growing component of the Medicare program. Medicare home health care and skilled nursing facility payments have each increased, on average, by more than 30 percent per year since 1990. High rates of growth are fueled by Medicare's payment policies which provide few incentives for post-acute care providers to provide services more efficiently and reduce costs. While Medicare has modified its policies over the years to address payment per unit of service, it has had little success controlling the volume of services delivered.
For more than a decade, Congress has directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a prospective payment system for both home health care and skilled nursing facility services. Most recently, the vetoed Balanced Budget Act of 1995 included new policies that would have implemented separate prospective payment systems for both of these services. The President's fiscal year 1998 budget proposal contains provisions to establish prospective payment systems for these services as well as a number of initiatives to prevent fraud and abuse in the provisions of home health care and skilled nursing facility services.
Medicare rehabilitation facility and long-term care hospital admissions and payments have also risen in recent years. The vast majority of the patients in these facilities have a prior acute inpatient admission before entering the facility. These post-acute care services are paid under a system established in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA). In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, the Secretary was instructed to reform the TEFRA system or replace it with a prospective payment system. There has been little progress in this area.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Thomas stated: "I am confident this is the year we will finally establish prospective payment systems for home health care and skilled nursing facilities. The Congress, the Administration and the provider communities should work to develop new payment systems with incentives that ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to medically appropriate care that is cost-effective."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING
This hearing will focus on the provisions in the President's fiscal year 1998 budget proposal regarding Medicare payments for home health care, skilled nursing facility, and other post-acute care services. These proposals will be assessed in light of the recommendations developed for the Congress by the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, as well as the policies contained in the Medicare Preservation Act of 1995 and the Balanced Budget Act of 1995.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit at least six (6) copies of their statement and a 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or ASCII format, with their address and date of hearing noted, by the close of business, Tuesday, March 18, 1997, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Health office, room 1136 Longworth House Office Building, at least one hour before the hearing begins.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be typed in single space on legal-size paper and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. At the same time written statements are submitted to the Committee, witnesses are now requested to submit their statements on a 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or ASCII format.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, full address, a telephone number where the witness or the designated representative may be reached and a topical outline or summary of the comments and recommendations in the full statement. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
call 202-225-1721 or 202-225-1904 TTD/TTY in advance of the event
(four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to
special accommodation needs in general (including availability of
Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the
Committee as noted above.