Health and Disability

A study released today by the Washington D.C.-based National Association for Home Care and Hospice shows that the nurses, therapists, home care aides and others who serve elderly and disabled patients in their homes drive, on average, more miles annually than many driving professionals including UPS drivers.

"Caring for over seven million patients annually with 428 million visits, these dedicated providers of home care and hospice are feeling the same pain at the pump as other consumers, but they carry the added burden of the Administration's deep cuts into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, says Val J. Halamadaris, President of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC*). "These draconian cuts ignored the cost of living increases, chief among these is the rising price of gasoline -- a commodity most essential for these traveling 'road warriors' of mercy. Home care patients are homebound - they are so sick, so chronically ill, they cannot leave their homes without assistance. If nurses do not get in their cars to visit them, there is no way to reach them. What will be precipitated is a full-scale national emergency," added Halamadaris.Norman DeLisle, MDRC
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The Maryland Court of Special Appeals last month ruled that some Medicaid eligibility standards used by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene were stricter than federal laws allow, and advocates hope the broad standards outlined in the case will be applied universally, the Baltimore Sun reports. The lawsuit was filed by Diane Byus on behalf of her mother, Ida Brown, after Brown was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and was unable to receive assistance through the Older Adults Waiver Program, a Medicaid program designed to provide services such as nursing and adult day care.

Maryland limits eligibility in the program to residents older than age 50 who have incomes less than $1,869 a month and require daily care from licensed health care professionals. Although Brown, who also has several chronic conditions, requires daily monitoring, she does not require constant care from a physician or nurse, the Sun reports. Attorneys from the Legal Aid Bureau and AARP argued in the case that state and federal laws limit eligibility to residents who regularly require "health-related care and services," such as those that could be provided in a nursing home, but not necessarily daily by a skilled nurse.