In a speech to the Senate, Senator Collins said, "Home health has become an increasingly important part of our health care system. The kinds of highly skilled—and often technically complex—services that our home health caregivers provide have enabled millions of our most frail and vulnerable older and disabled citizens to avoid hospitals and nursing homes and stay just where they want to be—in the comfort, privacy and security of their own homes."
Senator Collins explained that she has accompanied home health nurses in Maine to visit their patients and has seen first hand the differences they are making for Maine's elderly. "Home health care allows elderly individuals to stay at home and near their families, right where they belong," she said.
She also explained that the cost of providing home health care is higher in rural communities because extra travel time is required to cover long distances between patients, higher transportation expenses and other factors. She provided the example of the Visiting Nurses of Aroostook where the agency covers 6,600 square miles with a population of only 73,000.
At issue is the additional, or "add on" payment that Medicare allows for home health agencies serving patients in rural areas. Under current law, however, this additional 5 percent payment is scheduled to expire on April 1, 2005. Senator Collins' legislation would extend this by two years. ##