Home Health Care Information The Center has been hearing from people unable to access Medicare-covered home health care, or the appropriate amount of care, despite meeting Medicare coverage criteria. In particular, people living with long-term and debilitating conditions find themselves facing significant access problems. For example, patients have been told Medicare will only cover one to five hours per week of home health aide services, or only one bath per week, or that they aren’t homebound (because they roam outside due to dementia), or that they must first decline before therapy can commence (or recommence). Consequently, these individuals and their families are struggling with too
Home Health Coverage & Jimmo v. Sebelius.
little care, or no care at all. Home health access problems have ebbed and flowed over the years, depending on the reigning payment mechanisms, systemic pressures, and misinformation about Medicare home health coverage. Regrettably, if recent policies and proposed rules are fully implemented, it appears these access problems will only get worse. To respond to this crisis, the Center is building a coalition to support a Home Health Access Initiative. This Initiative is working to oppose inappropriate restrictions on Medicare to open
More Information When does Medicare cover home health care?
doors to Medicare-covered, necessary home care, but we What services are covered? need your help. If you or someone you know What if I attend religious has experienced home health services once a week; am I care access issues, submit the still considered story today. "homebound" for the In addition, it is important for purpose of Medicare beneficiaries and advocates to coverage? know what Medicare home health coverage should be under the law, especially for those with The home health agency told me my aide services would long term, chronic, and be reduced. My doctor debilitating conditions. See our hasn’t given me this detailed information below, and download our Infographic, Fact information. What are my rights? Sheet, and Toolkit: Medicare ….Read More
Why are One out of 10 Social Security Offices Closing??? One out of 10 Social Security offices has closed since 2000. Seniors and politicians want to know why. The Social Security Administration plans to close its Arlington field office and one of its Baltimore locations in June, part of a series of shutdowns across the country that activists and political leaders say is causing major difficulties for the elderly, people with disabilities and other beneficiaries. The agency has closed about 125 of its approximately 1,250 offices since 2000 — a 10 percent reduction, part of what officials describe as a shift to greater use of online services in an era of budget constraints and a growing population of senior citizens. In addition, all 533 Social Security Administration “contact sites” — locations that serve remote, rural populations on a weekly or monthly basis — have closed, said leaders of the union that represents Social
Security employees. The most recent closures, which have not been publicly announced, come on the heels of the shutdown of offices in Milwaukee and Chicago in the past year, which elected officials also protested to no avail. An SSA spokeswoman attributed the Arlington closure to an expiring lease and an inability to find space nearby — an explanation that elected officials in Virginia dispute. “Closing the Arlington office is a shortsighted way to cut costs, and will inflict hardship on people least able to cope with it,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said. He said he is asking the Social Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate whether the agency complied with requirements for public notice and community feedback
before field offices were shuttered. At a noisy rally Thursday under a hot noontime sun, about four dozen people — including Arlington County Board member Christian Dorsey (D) — protested the impending closure outside the office at 1401 Wilson Blvd., which is an easy walk from the Rosslyn Metro station. “I don’t have a car,” said Arlington resident Susan Landfield, 65. “I use public transit and it’s about two hours” to get to the next-nearest office, on Edsall Road in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County. Cecile Heatley, 75, warned Landfield that the commute may not be the worst of it. Heatley said she went to the Edsall Road office in 2014, after her husband died, and had to wait three hours
— standing the whole time because all the waiting room chairs were occupied. “I’m very, very upset that they are closing this office. It’s an imposition,” said the McLean resident. “That drive to Edsall is a long drive for me — I don’t drive that much anymore.” Social Security Administration spokeswoman Nicole Tiggemann said the General Services Administration, which handles federal office leases, has been “unable to find suitable replacement space” in Arlington and will have to close the office because of an expiring lease. The block where the office building is located is slated for redevelopment, but plans are on hold for the next two years, according to what the owners, Monday Properties, told the Arlington County Board a year ago. A spokeswoman for the company would not comment about its plans Friday….Read More
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