Lena Lindahl
llindahl@medpubs.com

You may have missed the story—i nearly did—but The Wall Street Journal has a great new idea on where to find $87 billion to pay for military and humanitarian operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eliminate fraud and abuse in government programs, especially in home health care.

According to the October 2 edition of the Journal, competitive bidding on DME could save Medicare $13.4 billion over 10 years and another $25.4 billion could be saved by bringing home health payments “in line with actual home health care costs.”

Now The Wall Street Journal is a fine publication and highly respected by business and government leaders across the country, but, to me, this smacks of picking on the little guy.

I have no doubt that we could “save” $87 billion, but why not go after a much more lucrative source, such as income tax fraud, for example. If the Federal government put some teeth back into tax enforcement to close loopholes and prosecute all those who cheat on their personal or business income taxes, we could save billions. Add to that the money that could be saved by making drug companies give the government volume discounts on the proposed Medicare prescription drug benefit and we could save even more.

Unfortunately, my cynical side tells me that this will never happen. Government is in the customer service business, and it is political suicide to go after voters with strict tax enforcement and drug companies that give millions in campaign contributions. No, it is much easier to go after the smallest segment of Medicare, home health care. Never mind that this segment is the one with the best potential to deliver quality care cost-effectively.

Fortunately, I am not alone in my frustration. Congressman Mike Ross (D-Ark) is one member of the Federal government who understands home health care, perhaps because he is also an HME and pharmacy owner.

“When you start talking about home medical equipment, I tell [Congressional members], ‘Don’t look at what it costs you; look at what it saves you,” he told Medtrade attendees in a rousing keynote address on October 9.

Ross is doing what he can to educate his fellow legislators and advocate for the Senate version of the Medicare reform bill (S1), which does not include competitive bidding for DME, as the House version (HR1) does. “I think [competitive bidding for DME] is wrong,” he said. “It will not only destroy this business, it will destroy the quality of care you are delivering.”

However, he is up against some tough odds, including a drug industry with more than 600 lobbyists, and he needs all of our help. At press time, there was no final decision on the Medicare drug bill, but congressional staffers were working out a compromise between the Senate and the House bill. To get the latest on this important legislation and to let your congressional representative know how you feel on DME competitive bidding, visit the Web site of the American Association for Homecare www.aahomecare.org, Capitol Connection http://capitol.medgroup.com, or DC Link http://dclink.vgm.com.