November 30, 1973
Page 38967
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my distinguished colleague from Minnesota in proposing an amendment to expand home health care coverage under medicare. The change effected by this amendment is one of a package of changes I have proposed in separate legislation, S. 2690, the Home Health Care Medicare Amendments of 1973.
The amendment before us today would delete the requirement that the home health care treatment covered under medicare be related to the condition which required initial medicare- covered hospitalization. This requirement has resulted in the denial of many home health care claims because the condition requiring home treatment may be different from the one which was originally diagnosed as the cause of hospitalization.
The Senate Aging Committee's Subcommittee on Health of the Elderly, of which I am chairman, has conducted hearings this past year on the problems of home health care under medicare. One witness at those hearings testified about the problems of the prior hospitalization requirement as follows:
Frequently, we get patients with four to five or more diagnoses, and if hospitalized for one of these diagnoses and then sent home to home care, [under the law] we should be treating the reason for hospitalization in order to have Medicare coverage. This condition perhaps was resolved in the hospital, but the [patient’s] other chronic problems appear now to be more disabling. This [situation] should be covered under Medicare but usually is not.
Thus, the prior hospitalization requirement acts to deprive those who need and deserve home health care treatment of medicare coverage.
Mr. President, I hope the Senate will adopt this amendment today to correct this deficiency in medicare home health coverage. I hope that eventually we will have a more comprehensive expansion of medicare home health care coverage, along the lines spelled out in my bill,
S.2690.
I commend the Senator from Minnesota for his initiative in bringing this amendment before the Senate today.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota (Mr. HUMPHREY).
The amendment was agreed to.