WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kerry D-Mass and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have introduced the Empowered at Home Act with the intent of increasing access to home- and community-based services.
The law would give states new tools and in-centives to make services more available to those who need them and affect care provided in homes and in long-term care facilities.
“The American Association of Homecare strongly endorses policies that help get the care seniors and the disabled need, in the comfort of their own home,” said Michael Reinemer, spokesman for the AAH.
“We also believe that it’s a large piece of the answer to the Medicare funding crisis, which promises to get worse. Homecare is a small fraction of Medicare spending, but a large part of the answer,” he added.
The goal is to keep infirm elderly and the disabled in their homes to receive care, rather than placing them in long-term care settings that are more expensive and expose them to other risks and infections.
“In the Medicaid program, some states have gotten a balance of institutional care and homecare, some are ahead of others, but this bill will give other states the flexibility to get folks into homecare,” said Reinemer.
The bill has four basic parts. First, it improves the Medicaid Home and Community Based Services State Plan Amendment Option by giving states more flexibility in determining eligibility for which services they can offer under the program.
The sponsors believe the bill will thus offer more options for individuals who need long-term support.
“Our members are seeing that the consumers really want more options,” said Peter Notarstefano, director of home and community-based services for American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. “And what we’re seeing on the state level is that more people are talking about home- and community-based care.”
Second, the bill ensures that the same-spousal impoverishment protections offered for new nursing home beneficiaries will be in place for those recipients who instead choose home- and community-based services. In addition, recipients of these services with low incomes will be able to keep more of their assets when they become eligible for Medicaid.
The bill also offers tax-related provisions to support family caregivers and promote the purchase of long-term care insurance. Finally, the bill aims to improve the quality of alternative-site care by providing grants for states to invest in organizations and systems that can help ensure a supply of high-quality workers, promote health and ensure the alternative sites will be more consumer-centric.
“We want to be proactive in preventing someone from going into institutional care,” said Notarstefano.