MNA Testifies at Home Care Hearings
Seek Funding for Patients Who Lose Access

MNA members from the Safe Care Campaign’s Task Force on Community Health Nursing and the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care, teamed up in May to present compelling testimony heard before the Joint Committee on Health Care. The committee held hearings on pieces of legislation that have been filed to alleviate the crisis in home care caused by cuts in Medicare under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Providing testimony at the hearings was Northeastern University researcher Rosanna DeMarco, RN, PhD, who along with nurse researcher and home visiting nurse Carolyn O’Brien, RN, has just completed a study of the impact of current reductions in Medicare spending on lay caregivers. Rosanna was joined by Carol Charest, RN, a specialist in home health and co-chair of the MNA Task Force on Community Health Nursing who provided testimony from the perspective of nurses working in home care, who have seen the impact of cuts on their patients.

Both spoke in support of, H. 782/S482 An Act to Provide Home Health Visiting Program. This bill, filed by the Home Health Care Association of Mass. and sponsored by Rep. Rachael Kaprilian, D-Watertown and Sen. Brian Lees, R-East Longmeadow, calls for stopgap funding for elderly and disabled patients in danger of losing access to home care services. Modeled after the newborn visiting program in which visiting nurses go into the home to check on the child and the new mother, the home health visiting program would provide nurses and home health aides services to the patients who have lost Medicare Home Health care but still need symptom maintenance, medication administration and supportive care.

The home health agencies that anticipate dropping a patient like this could apply to the state submitting a plan developed with a physician and with the estimated cost of care

Over the last year, dramatic changes at the federal level have left a number of vulnerable disabled and elderly citizens without the occasional skilled and frequent supportive care they received in the home which enabled them to maintain their dignity and independence. Family caregivers, who provide the bulk of long term care services to the elderly and disabled are being stretched beyond capacity.

This was validated by DeMarco. The study found that family members are spending more time at home nursing a family member, which is placing them at risk for: fragmented care, loss of their jobs, loss of income to support their families, and possibly loss of their own health insurance.

Charest spoke to the perspective of nurses across the state who have witnessed the deterioration in care and the reduced access to care caused by the cuts. She offered anecdotes gathered from Town Meetings held by the Community Health Task Force as part of the Safe Care Campaign. Charest also proposed two amendments to the bill to strengthen it: first, she recommended that the bill increase the number of groups participating in the development of the criteria for eligibility for the funding; and second, she recommended improvements in how the impact of the bill is measured, including economic impacts and the outcome measures for patients under the program.

"We need solutions, we need them now. We needed them yesterday. It’s going to be a while before this health care reform provides for all these needs." Charest told the committee.