Episode Copay???

[CardioTrans, BSN, RN]

Ok...... I dont know if any of you remember or know that our lovely Congress was thinking about passing a bill that would require people receiving home health to pay a copayment on EACH 60 day episode that they had.......The original bill was 15% copay......... well, everyone at our agency signed a petition against this bill............ I received a letter from the Representative for our district the other day......... it went into all the typical political........."stuff"...... saying that how Medicare needed more money and that this would "ensure" that Medicare coverage would continue in the future and that the bill will now require "ONLY" a 1.5% copay averaging about $45-$50 for each episode........... and that it actually PASSED 216-215!!!!!!!!! My Representative stated that he voted for this bill!

Now Im going to get on my soapbox.......... If these people that are covered by home care actually had an extra 45-50 bucks every 60 days then maybe they could get their entire prescription filled or actually be able to pay their light bill or buy groceries!!!!

When you have a monthly income of say 500 bucks and your medicine bill is 700/month....where are they going to get the extra money??????? Some of the patients that we see have to chose each month..... ok, do I get my medicines or groceries this month? or meds or lights? How infuriating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once these people get the bill for these copays how many do you think will actually have to decline home health????

What do you all think????????

[Monica RN,BSN]

Thats really going to be a problem! I haven't heard about this copay, I do understand the finacial aspect, as I too do home health and see it all the time. I remeber several years ago, there was a $2.00 co pay for the medicaid patients per visit, they (the agency) actually wanted us to carry cash boxes on our routes to collect this copay as we were seeing our medicaid clients.. SAy What??!!! I refused to be a bill collector..... funny how the government thinks there is a quick fix to the medical delemia. How about they think of a brainy plan to help with the cost of medications??/

[Traveler]

I agree about many of these people not having the money to pay for basic necessities. Another thought. So, they would need to pay about $50 per episode. How much do you think it will cost the govt to set up the billing program, mail bills, process payments, etc. I dare say they would end up losing money because we all know how inefficient they can be. I could see us losing quite a few patients if this actually comes to be.

Ann