I am the same as Kim. We do not do Hospice so I can’t voice an opinion either.
__________________________
Linda Hespe
Home Health Director
Essentia Health Home Care West
114 Frazee St. East | Detroit Lakes, MN 56501
P: 218-314-7806| F: 218-847-0850
Linda.Hespe@EssentiaHealth.org |
www.essentiahealth.org
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From: list-manager@list.mnhomecare.org [mailto:list-manager@list.mnhomecare.org]
On Behalf Of Kim Olson
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2016 1:55 PM
To: MHCABOD@list.mnhomecare.org
Subject: Re: FW: Rural Access to Hospice Act (S. 2786/H.R. 5799): Request for Forum Sign-ons
Hi Kathy,
Since Lake Region Home Health does not provide Hospice services I do not have an educated opinion.
Kim
On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 8:12 AM, Kathy Messerli <kmesserli@mnhomecare.org> wrote:
I’m seeking input on whether MHCA should sign onto the letter below. Please respond by Monday. Thanks!!
Kathy Messerli
Executive Director | Minnesota HomeCare Association
2550 University Ave. W., Ste. 350 S | St. Paul, MN 55114-1900
Direct:
651.635.0038 | Main:
651.635.0607
Toll-free:
866.607.0607 | Fax:
651.635.0043
www.mnhomecare.org
| kmesserli@mnhomecare.org
Mission:
MHCA represents and supports Minnesota home care providers committed to high quality home care services.
Vision:
MHCA will shape the home care landscape to improve and sustain quality home care services.
MHCA supports the
Best Life Alliance.
From: Theresa M. Forster [mailto:tmf@nahc.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 2:49 PM
To: Forum of State Associations <forum@news.nahc.org>
Subject: Rural Access to Hospice Act (S. 2786/H.R. 5799): Request for Forum Sign-ons
Dear Members of the Forum –
Jane Kelly and I have been discussing
S 2786/HR 5799 – the Rural Access to Hospice Act of 2016 – which would permit Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to bill Medicare for attending physician services when a clinic or center-employed physician or Nurse
Practitioner (NP) has been selected by a hospice patient to serve as the attending physician. Currently, if the physician/NP wants to bill for attending physician services, he or she must do so separately to Part B, but many center or clinic-employed
physicians/NPs do not operate separate physician practices. This serves as a deterrent for them to serve as the attending physician, and deprives the hospice patient of the continuity of care and comfort that might otherwise be available if the primary care
practitioner that has cared for them over the years remains involved in their care.
Legislation has been introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives to address this issue. Following is a sponsor/cosponsors
list for both bills:
|
|
S. 2786 |
HR 5799 |
|
Sponsor: Cosponsors: |
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Patrick Leahy (D-VT) |
Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) Ron Kind (D-WI) Suzan K. DelBene (D-WA) Scott R. Tipton (R-CO) Peter Welch (D-VT) Adrian Smith (R-NE) Brad Ashford (D-NE) Gregg Harper (R-MS) |
Jane suggested that we develop a sign-on letter that would be sent to all of the current cosponsors from NAHC and members
of the Forum of State Associations who are interested in signing on. The letter expresses our support for the legislation and offers to help in any way that we can in promoting its enactment.
A draft letter to the House sponsor/cosponsors is pasted in below. An identical letter would be crafted for the Senate sponsors.
If your association is a member of the Forum of State Associations and is interested in signing onto the letters, please contact me (Theresa Forster) at
tmf@nahc.org. We appreciate your involvement in supporting this effort. State associations will be signed on in alpha order based on the name of their state.
Thanks! Theresa
Following is the draft letter:
Honorable Lynn Jenkins
Honorable Ron Kind
Honorable Suzan DelBene
Honorable Scott Tipton
Honorable Peter Welch
Honorable Adrian Smith
Honorable Brad Ashford
Honorable Gregg Harper
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Dear Representatives, Jenkins, Kind, DelBene, Tipton, Welch, Smith, Ashford and Harper:
The Forum of State Associations is an affiliated organization of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
Both NAHC and members of the Forum advocate for legislative, regulatory and other changes that will help to improve the quality and availability of home care and hospice services throughout the Nation. NAHC and the undersigned organizations are writing to
express our enthusiastic support for H.R. 5799, the Rural Access to Hospice Act.
When enacted in 1982, the legislation that authorized the Medicare Hospice Benefit recognized the right of hospice patients
to maintain the involvement of their personal physician in their care as they entered the final stages of life. As such, Medicare allowed a hospice patient’s designated attending physician to bill Medicare for services related to the terminal illness or any
related conditions as long as the attending physician was not an “employee” of the hospice. This provision has provided comfort and eased fears experienced by individuals as they and their loved ones address the realities of life-limiting illnesses. However,
through some oversight, the authorizing legislation did not address conditions under which a patient’s personal physician is the employee of a Rural Health Clinical (RHC) or Federally-Qualified Health Center (FQHC). As a result, RHCs and FQHCs may NOT bill
Medicare for hospice attending physician services performed by their employed physicians or Nurse Practitioners (NPs). This may discourage RHC and FQHC physicians from serving as attending physicians for hospice patients which may, in turn, discourage use
of hospice services and deny Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers the vital benefits that hospice has to offer.
The Rural Access to Hospice Act would address this serious oversight and help to ensure that hospice patients served by RHCs
and FQHCs are afforded the right to continuity of care that their counterparts in more populous areas of the country have enjoyed for more than 30 years. It does so by permitting RHCs and FQHCs to bill Medicare for hospice attending physician services provided
by center-employed physicians and NPs.
We heartily endorse your efforts to promote the important changes that would occur through enactment of the Rural Access to
Hospice Act, and extend our thanks. We stand ready to assist in any way that we can to work toward enactment of H.R. 5799.
Sincerely,
National Association for Home Care & Hospice
FORUM SIGN ONs
Theresa M. Forster
VP for Hospice Policy & Programs
National Association for Home Care & Hospice
--