HCA's Response to Home Care Cuts in the Governor's Extender Legislation

Download: HCA's Response to Home Care Cuts in the Governor's Extender Legislation

For Immediate Release: June 7, 2010
Contact: Roger Noyes (518) 810-0665; (518) 275-6961 cell

A Statement by HCA President Joanne Cunningham on the Governor's Budget Extender Legislation

Today is a sad day for New York's health care system and for the disregard of policy options that would save costs and improve the system. The home health care system in particular is financially collapsing; yet, instead of an antidote or surgical repair, the plan unfolding today by the Governor and Legislature is more of the same lethal prescription of cuts that sends patient services in an irreparably downward spiral.

New York's home care system cannot sustain any additional reductions on top of the millions in cuts that have already battered a vital system of support for chronically ill, elderly, and disabled New Yorkers. Home care is reeling, and we have presented the Governor and Legislature with the facts and data to bear this out. Now, the Governor is jamming nearly $70 million in new cuts to home care through this week's extender bill, ignoring the peril for these patients and agencies. In so doing, he is himself squandering, and leading the Legislature to squander, the opportunity for constructive cost-saving solutions presented by the home care community in place of such cuts.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in health system expenses are saved because of home care. In addition, as shown in last year's deficit reduction plan (DRP) negotiations, the home care community can also be an affirmative partner with state policymakers in offering proven Medicaid cost-efficiencies that save dollars while protecting vital services. In fact, at that time, the Governor and Legislature embraced an HCA-developed proposal to save approximately $20 million in state Medicaid funds through changes to New York's home care medication pre-fill guidelines.

While the Governor includes three additional HCA cost-efficiency proposals in this week's extender legislation, he continues, at the same time, to insist on cuts that will be destructive to home care services and that summarily deny the opportunity for achieving further productive savings.

Rather than build upon the home care system's inherent ability to reduce costs, the Governor's cuts, which the Legislature is being led to embrace, opt for an immediate fix and a certain dead end for this system.

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