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TAHC&H responds to the Texas Supreme Court’s Action on Medicaid Acute Care Therapy Reimbursement Rates

By Elyse Fulton posted Sep 23,2016 04:58 PM

  

The following statement is from Rachel Hammon, Executive Director of the Texas Association for Home Care & Hospice:

“We are disappointed to learn of the Texas Supreme Court’s decision to not take up the appeal by families and children receiving acute care therapy services and some of their providers.

Although the Court decided to not review the case, it is important to remember the facts discovered in the case remain undisputed: During the 2015 Legislative Session, Texas lawmakers were given misleading and flawed information that resulted in their decision to cut therapy for disabled children by $350 million over the next two years.

More concerning is that as a result of testimony in a Texas Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, we know there is an access-to-care crisis occurring right now for therapy services. The current crisis is a result of poorly implemented new prior authorization requirements that are causing kids to wait weeks to receive care and deep cuts that are being made by managed care organizations to the rates paid to therapy providers who provide the care. If the state chooses to move forward with these cuts it will add to the crisis, causing deep and lasting harm on our state’s most medically vulnerable children.

The Governor, lawmakers and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services must act now to save kids from further harm. Members of the Texas Senate Finance Committee and Chair Jane Nelson assured families and all Texans last week that therapy services will remain available for tens of thousands of medically-fragile kids and seniors in Texas. Now is the time to halt these cuts, make immediate changes to the policy implementation that is impacting care and call on managed care organizations to stop denying vital care to kids."

For more information, contact Bill Noble at bnoble@noblestrategic.com.

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