The Choose Home Care Act of 2021 introduced in the U.S. Senate in late July would create additional opportunities for patients who need nursing-home type of care to remain at home and receive health care.
However, associations representing assisted living centers oppose the measure, saying it will interfere with and replace existing benefits.
Described as “bipartisan legislation,” a report in Home Health Care News said the bill seeks to create an add-on payment for home health care providers serving patients who would otherwise qualify for nursing home care. Care providers could offer meals, transportation and other “daily living” services.
Bill Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), said that if added to other hospital at-home services and community care programs, passage of the bill could reshape the country’s health care.
“The home health industry has long felt that care in the home should be the center of health care,” Dombi told Home Health Care News. “This is a step in that direction.”
Officials from the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), associations that represent 14,000 nursing homes, disagreed. They said the proposal could limit options for beneficiaries, including those enrolled in Medicare.
“AHCA/NCAL strongly supports rational population health framework approaches to offer beneficiaries preferred care options,” a statement from the organizations provided to Home Health Care News said. “We need proposals that add options for Medicare beneficiaries, not limit them.”
The report said the two nursing home lobbying groups are mostly alone in their opposition to the act.
Supporters include health care nonprofits: the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, National Council on Aging, Leading Age and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
Dombi indicated the nursing home association criticism of the proposal was a case of thinking about a business first and not the patient. “What we’re asking people to do is to stand back and not listen to rhetoric from people who are concerned about their business,” he told Home Health Care News. “Instead, look at those voices that have come in on behalf of the beneficiary population. That should be the test that’s applied to evaluate this program.”
