Feingold Highlights Progress, Challenges in Fight For Home Health Care Senator Introduces New Bill To Help Home Health Agencies Stay Afloat August 2, 2000 Webster, WI -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today discussed the surge in home health agency closures across the state, and his new legislation to restore stability to home health care in Wisconsin.   "As home health agencies have been forced to close their doors due to changes in the way Medicare pays for home health services, I have worked with my colleagues in the Senate to curb the unintended effects of these changes," Feingold said. "We've gained some ground in the battle for Wisconsin’s home health agencies by increasing payments for the sickest patients, but we’ve still got a long way to go to getting a fair deal for the people who give and receive home health care in our state."   Now home health agencies are being asked to make even more costly changes under a new payment system scheduled to go into effect this fall. In response to these new challenges for home health agencies, Senator Feingold has introduced a new bill, along with Republican colleague Charles Grassley of Iowa, to help home health agencies make it through the transition to the new payment system. The Medicare Home Health Refinement Act of 2000, offers a combination of emergency cash flow assistance, reimbursement for transition costs not covered under the Balanced Budget Act, and a system to separate medical supply costs from other home health expenses.   "The changes proposed in my bill are simple ways to help home health agencies stay in business as they move over to the new payment system," Feingold said. "Home health care agencies in Wisconsin need a federal policy that gives them a fair deal in the long-term, so that they can continue to provide their patients with compassionate, at-home medical assistance."   “The current reporting system, which relies on voluntary reporting, doesn’t meet the high standards of the rest of the dairy industry,” Feingold said. “It’s time to make reporting mandatory, verifiable, and enforceable. Until Congress clamps down on storable dairy product reporting, we leave our dairy farmers vulnerable to reporting mistakes that hurt them in the market, and that’s a risk Wisconsin’s hard working dairy farmers shouldn’t have to take.”   Feingold's 48th Listening Session of 2000, and the552nd since he was first elected in 1992, was held at the Webster Community Center at beginning at 9:30 a.m. Feingold’s 49th session of the year, and 553rd since he was first elected, was held at the Cumberland Town Hall beginning at noon.

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