Home- and community-based services (HCBS) allow individuals who might otherwise seek nursing home care to remain in their homes close to supporting family and community and provides necessary care to hospital patients upon discharge.  Without adequate HCBS, patients will remain in high-cost and inappropriate settings.

Conference Position

The Conference supports adequate financial supports for home- and community-based services, including:

• Increased capital financing for deployment of telemedicine and other technologies that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of home health care, particularly for the frail elderly in rural and inner-city areas
• Adequate reimbursement for administration and home health care staffing
• Extension of grants to assist recruitment, retention and training efforts and to expand benefits such as child care, transportation, tuition scholarships and/or loan forgiveness programs.

Rationale

Shortages in the home- and community-based services workforce also continue to plague many agencies, despite recently enacted cost of living adjustments to home care rates.  Increasing administrative costs, which are already inadequately reimbursed, compound the problems of many home care agencies and erode their ability to offer cost-effective non-institutional care to vulnerable seniors and special needs populations.