Without Home Health Care, What’s at Stake?

That’s the question being asked in a series of one-minute videos that that our Government Affairs and Communications teams have collaborated on and that our Social Media team is pushing out on all of our social media platforms. To view the first of these important videos, click on the image below.

The fact is, a lot is at stake. For next year (2026 is less than 3 months away!), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed an unprecedented 9% cut to Medicare home health care reimbursement rates. We’re talking millions of dollars of cuts to the care we provide!

This proposed reduction comes on top of cuts and underpayments since 2020 that have already sharply reduced access to home health care for millions of Americans—including thousands of our own patients and Medicare enrollees throughout New York State.

CMS is expected to announce their final decision in the coming weeks, so the clock is ticking.

Because so much is at stake, both for those we serve and for us as an organization, VNS Health has been making an all-out advocacy effort to reverse these proposed cuts.

Here is what VNS Health is doing to help protect home health care.

In addition to our own social media videos, we’ve teamed up with Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres on a two-minute video called “Home Health Is a Lifeline,” in which he accompanies Home Care RN Dioris Molina on a visit to a bed-bound patient in the Bronx. To view the video, click here below.

CEO Dan Savitt has been at the forefront of conversations around the proposed cuts. He provided perspective in Politico on the potential impact of the cuts, and in a recent Home Health Care News article, Dan observed that the current Federal government shutdown is only adding to the harm caused by the proposed Medicare cut. To read the article, including Dan’s quote, click here.

We’ve also reported on VNS Health’s advocacy efforts in our external newsletter to our health care partners, VNS Health TODAY. To read, click here.

VNS Health has also joined a national campaign alongside our partners, pushing the Administration, CMS and lawmakers to restore home health funding, as previously noted in Frontline. Dan Savitt, our Government Affairs team and Home Care RN Raquel Webb Geddes have all been down to Washington, DC, meeting with CMS officials and members of Congress to urge them to reverse the cuts. VNS Health’s leadership and individual VNS Health clinicians have also submitted comments to CMS, highlighting why accessible home health care is so important to vulnerable New Yorkers.

Our Government Affairs team continues to work closely with New York’s Congressional representatives, encouraging and supporting their efforts to protect home health care. These efforts include a bipartisan letter from New York’s Congressional delegation to the White House, CMS and the Office of Management and Budget.

Here is what you can do to help protect home health care.

It’s important we all play a part in our advocacy effort to protect home health care. Many VNS Health team members have already contacted their Congressional representatives, asking them to oppose the proposed Medicare cuts. If you haven’t written your senator or congressperson to let them know how you feel, you can do so by clicking here. If you have been in touch with them, reach out again. And ask other family members and friends to contact their representatives as well.

You can also help by sharing our social media advocacy videos. Click on the following links to view (and share) the videos on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Help them go viral.  Comment on them. There are over 10,000 voices here at VNS Health. Let your voice be heard!

Together, we can help protect home health care!