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WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) announced today that the landmark “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” will include the establishment of Continuing Care Hospitals as a pilot program to improve how seriously injured or ill patients receive and pay for post-acute care.
“Americans spend almost $50 billion a year on post-acute care through Medicare,” said Pascrell, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Health Subcommittee who wrote the bill’s provisions for the program. “We owe it to ourselves to try new ways of providing patients with the care they need while protecting them from paying too much for it.”
Bruce Gans, chief medical officer for Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, said he is a staunch supporter of the continuing care hospitals experiment.
Currently, patients too ill or too injured to go straight home from the hospital have various options for post-acute care, including nursing homes, rehabilitation hospitals and long-term care facilities, Gans said.
“Right now, it’s almost a crap-shoot of whether the patient gets into the right facility,” said Gans, who oversees Kessler facilities in West Orange, Saddle Brook and Chester. “The patient shouldn’t go where the price is right. They should go where the care is right, and the care should be properly priced.”
Continuing Care Hospitals would eliminate confusion by bringing different care options within one facility, Gans said. In some cases, new facilities would be constructed from the ground up. In other cases, exiting facilities would align together as one single entity.
The creation of Continuing Care Hospitals would also lead to a new Medicare category of provider type, simplifying reimbursements to the care providers. Ultimately, patients’ out-of-pocket costs would be reduced and their Medicare benefits would be used more efficiently.
“It’s a new way of delivering care and a new way of paying for it,” Gans said
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