Company Thanks U.S. Senators Rubio and
Nelson
and the Florida
Congressional Delegation for Advocating to Preserve Patient Access to
Quality Home Health Services
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 3, 2017--
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (“Kindred” or the “Company”) (NYSE:KND) today
announced its appreciation for the halting of a home health Pre-Claim
Review Demonstration (“PCRD”) in Florida and Illinois. Kindred at Home,
a division of Kindred, is the nation’s largest and most geographically
diversified home health organization, offering a wide-range of services
to patients and clients in their homes or places of residence.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) were running the
PCRD program in Illinois, with planned implementation in Florida on
April 1. Under the new demonstration, home health providers would be
required to gain approval of physician-ordered services from a
non-clinical third party government contractor to ensure Medicare
payment for delivered care services. Earlier this year, U.S. Senators
Marco Rubio
(R-FL) and
Bill Nelson
(D-FL) led an effort to send a
letter, also signed by a bipartisan group of 25 U.S. Representatives
from Florida, to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary
Tom Price
, which requested “the agency to replace PCRD with a more
effective program integrity initiative that better targets fraud.”
On Friday, March 31, CMS announced that it would pause the program,
effective immediately.
“We are pleased that CMS Administrator
Seema Verma
has chosen to suspend
the program while improvements are made, which we believe will protect
patient care,” stated
Benjamin A. Breier
, President and Chief Executive
Officer of the Company. “On behalf of home health patients, caregivers
and other providers in Florida and nationwide, we thank Senators Rubio
and Nelson and the members of the Florida congressional delegation for
their leadership in advocating to replace the troubled PCRD program with
a more effective integrity initiative that better targets fraud.”
Concluded Mr. Breier, “Kindred fully supports appropriate program
integrity efforts that address fraud and improper payments while
preserving patient access and high-quality outcomes. We are committed to
working with CMS and Congressional leaders to develop an initiative that
effectively targets improper payments without impeding patient access.
As healthcare providers, we believe that we share in the responsibility
to combat Medicare fraud and protect taxpayer funds.”
About Kindred Healthcare
Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a top-90 private employer in the United
States, is a FORTUNE 500 healthcare services company based in
Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately
$7.2 billion. At December 31, 2016, Kindred through its subsidiaries had
approximately 100,100 employees providing healthcare services in 2,654
locations in 46 states, including 82 long-term acute care hospitals, 19
inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 91 nursing centers, 17 sub-acute
units, 635 Kindred at Home home health, hospice and non-medical home
care sites of service, 102 inpatient rehabilitation units
(hospital-based) and contract rehabilitation service businesses which
served 1,708 non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune
magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for eight years, Kindred’s
mission is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity and
produce value for each patient, resident, family member, customer,
employee and shareholder we serve. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Kindred Healthcare, Inc.
Kindred Healthcare, Inc.
Susan E. Moss, 502-596-7296
Senior
Vice President, Marketing and Communications