Federal Advocacy

Though HCA's offices are located in Albany, the Association is very active on the federal level to ensure that regulatory, funding and legislative decisions in Washington serve the best interests of New York's mission-driven home care providers.

HCA's Federal Advocacy Day: April 8, 2008

HCA headed to Washington, D.C. on April 8 for our Federal Advocacy Day.

The following are one-page summaries of the issues HCA focused on during our legislative meetings (all files are downloadable PDFs):

• Eliminate Potential Double Hit on Medicare Funding for Home Health Services: Support a full market basket update for Medicare home health services and repeal the Case Mix Creep CMS Medicare Cut.
• Reverse or Correct CMS Administrative Actions: Reverse a rule that modifies reimbursement for case management service, hampering the coordination of care; maintain spousal impoverishment protections for recipients of CMS waiver programs; reverse the prohibition on needy individuals being served by dual waiver programs.

»Download a New York Congressional Delegation letter — led by U.S. Representatives Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) and Peter King (R-Seaford) — to CMS on the dual waiver issue.

• Make Permanent New York's Third-Party Liability (TPL) Demonstration Project: The TPL helps eliminate the complexity involved in juggling multiple payor sources when patients are dual eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.
• Reinstate the 5% Medicare Rural Add-on: Nearly 50% of New York's counties are designated rural by CMS. Twenty-five of these counties are served by only one or two home health agencies. Twelve are served only by the county-sponsored Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) and/or Long Term Home Health Care Program (LTHHCP). Rural agencies face the greatest challenges in terms of workforce shortages and the need to deliver services to sparse populations. HCA believes that Congress should permanently extend the 5% Medicare rural add-on for home health services delivered in rural areas so that access to skilled home and community based care is not threatened.