As I recall the Medicare restrictions involving home care were the result of the federal government detecting that home health agencies (private businesses) were committing billing fraud. In some instances, the gov claimed, the agency would bill when they had not sent a worker to a disabled person's home, in others they were claiming the worker was there more hours than they were, etc. so the program had huge overruns. So Clinton decided to reign in the program... This "house cleaning" probably hurt some disabled people who may not have gotten the services they needed because these home care agencies tend to be flighty. I suspect that some probably shut their doors when they couldn't rake in the government dough, though I'd have to investigate to see if this actually happened. There seem to be many situations where businesses scam government programs for years before they get caught.
I'm not sure about the details on the nursing home care or HMOs. I'd like to know though, if you find out more.
Marta
Michael Pollak wrote:
> > Los Angeles Times - July 11, 1999
> >
> > HUGE SURPLUS IS BUILT ON BIG ASSUMPTIONS
> > By Janet Hook, Peter G. Gosselin, Times Staff Writers
>
> <snip>
>
> > In their forecasts of giant surpluses, for example, both White House
> > and congressional analysts assumed the government would stick with a
> > 1997 law to restrict Medicare coverage of home health care, nursing
> > home care and health maintenance organizations.
> >
> > Congress is now under tremendous pressure from both the health care
> > industry and the elderly to ease those restrictions.
>
> Can someone tell me what these 1997 restrictions on Medicare and
> nursing homes were? Thanks.
>
> Michael
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
-- Marta Russell author, Los Angeles, CA Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract http://www.commoncouragepress.com/ramps.html