SENATOR COLLINS NAMED HOME CARE HERO BY NATIONAL GROUP

Washington, DC – Senator Susan Collins was named a "home care hero" today by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice during the group's annual meeting. Senator Collins took the opportunity to discuss one of her home healthcare priorities, the "Medicare Rural Home Health Payment Fairness Act," which she introduced earlier this year with Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. This bill will extend the additional payment for home health services in rural areas for two years.

"While I am pleased to be recognized as a ‘home care hero' by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, our nation's home health care and hospice providers are our true home care heroes," Senator Collins said. "The highly skilled services and compassionate care that our nation's home health caregivers provide helps keep families together and enables millions of our most frail and vulnerable persons to avoid hospitals and nursing home and stay just where they want to be – in the comfort and security of their own homes. I will continue to work with home healthcare providers to ensure that our seniors continue to have access to quality home health services."

Studies have shown that the delivery of home health services in rural areas can be as much as 12 to 15 percent more costly because of the extra travel time required to cover long distances between patients, higher transportation expenses, and other factors.

To help compensate for higher rural costs, Medicare currently provides for an additional 5 percent payment for rural areas. These payments are set to expire April 1, 2005, unless Congress acts. This legislation will extend these payments for an additional two years, ensuring that Medicare patients in rural areas will continue to have access to the home health services they need.

Senator Collins is a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

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