A New Healthcare Home Act 2021
This proposed act is making aging-in-place a little easier by expanding Medicare Home Health benefits. Many people require mild to moderate follow-up care after being discharged from the hospital. Discharged patients commonly recuperate at skilled nursing facilities (SNF) where they are attended to by industry professionals and caregivers. For others, home healthcare has always presented an existing and cheaper option than SNFs. Medicare-eligible patients traditionally can claim some home health benefits on items like a part-time skilled nurse, physical, occupational, or behavioral therapy, and certain medical equipment. However, there are still many aspects of home health that are not claimable, like shower grab bars or certain bathroom modifications.
One of the latest healthcare home acts is the Choose Home Care Act 2021, introduced in July. It opens up a range of items like meals, home modifications, non-emergent transportation, and remote patient monitoring for beneficiaries! As the act is still up for debate, we’ve laid out some basics of the Choose Home Care Act 2021 below:
What is the Choose Home Care Act 2021?
The Choose Home Care Act is a bipartisan Senate bill. It was introduced in July, 2021. It enables eligible Medicare patients to receive extended care services as an add-on to the existing Medicare home health benefit for 30 days after hospital discharge (HomeCare Magazine).
What is New About This Home Care Act?
With this act, eligible beneficiaries would now be able claim more services such as part-time skilled nursing, therapy, primary care, personal care, remote patient monitoring, meals, home modifications and non-emergent transportation in the home setting as Home Health benefits.
Choose Home and COVID-19
By offering these new services in the home setting instead of in a skilled nursing facility or other institutional setting, the act would help seriously ill individuals recover safely at home, increase patient and family satisfaction, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases.
Bottom Line:
The Choose Home Care Act 2021 expands Medicare coverage to a variety of home health related items. For those aging-in-place, this might be good news as the home health industry continues to modernize to improve quality of care. Many believe that home health could even be made clinically comparable to SNFs. Considering that SNFs and other facilities provide professional, 24/7 care, some critics of this new healthcare-related home act are concerned about patient safety with home health. Not to mention, SNFs would feel a financial blow with the Choose Home Care Act.
For a deeper understanding, we recommend this article from Home Health Care News! Find out more about the prevailing pros and cons of the Choose Home Care Act 2021.
From, The Zemplee Team
