Massachusetts Home Care Cuts?

Yes and no. Last week, MassHealth moved to eliminate a $300m budget gap with cuts to adult dental benefits and limitations to the personal care attendant program. See a "Boston Globe" article about it here. The headline to that story noted that the cuts impact home care... which certainly grabbed my attention. But, there's more to this story. The personal care attendant benefit will no longer be available for patients who require such attendants for less than 15 hours per week. Additionally, a benefit that covered pre-screening for mostly hospitalized patients designed to educate them about nursing home and home care options was completely eliminated. While these cuts are unfortunate for those who have benefiting historically, it's good news that the announcements haven't detailed any new cuts to home health services for MassHealth beneficiaries. As with many announcments about budget cuts, however, there were some ominous remarks about additional cuts perhaps being necessary. So, we'll wait and see... but it's good news for now.