S.Amdt. 362

SA 362. Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Reed, Mr. Bond, and Ms. Mikulski) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 23, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2004 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2003 and for fiscal years 2005 through 2013; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 79, after line 22, insert the following:

SEC. ____. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING MEDICARE HOME HEALTH PAYMENTS.

(a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:

(1) 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 Nation's home health agencies provide have enabled millions of our most frail and vulnerable older and disabled persons to avoid hospitals and nursing homes and remain in the comfort and security of their homes.

(2) The changes initiated as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 produced cuts in home health spending under the medicare program far beyond what Congress intended. According to estimates from the Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, expenditures for home health services under the medicare program decreased by 39 percent between fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 2003.

(3) Projected medicare home health savings under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 have totaled more than $72,000,000,000 between fiscal year 1998 and fiscal year 2002, over 4 times the $16,000,000,000 that the Congressional Budget Office originally estimated for that time period.

(4) Over 3,400 home health agencies have either closed or stopped serving medicare beneficiaries since the enactment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

(5) Since January 1997, the number of medicare beneficiaries receiving home health services nationwide has dropped by 1,300,000, more than \1/3\, and the average number of visits provided over a 60-day period has dropped from 36 to 20.

(6) On October 1, 2002, home health agencies received an additional across-the-board cut in medicare home health payments and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has dramatically reduced projections for home health spending under the medicare program over the next 10 years.

(7) Further cuts in payments for home health services under the medicare program simply cannot be sustained without affecting patient care, particularly for those medicare beneficiaries with complex care requirements.

(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the medicare home health benefit should be stabilized by--

(1) avoiding further cuts in payments for home health services under the medicare program;

(2) preserving the full market basket update for payments under the medicare prospective payment system for home health services for 2004; and

(3) providing for an add-on payment under the medicare program for home health services furnished in rural areas after March 31, 2003.