October 2, 2006

Urge Your Representatives to Sign Letter Opposing Rate Cut to Partial Hospitalization Program

Summary
Among the changes in Medicare reimbursement to providers of outpatient services proposed by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is 15 percent reduction to the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) rate for calendar year (CY) 2007, effective January 1, 2007. The National Council urges you to contact your Representatives and ask them to sign on to a letter to Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) urging him to suspend the proposed cut and create a behavioral health task force to establish a more effective method of calculating rate changes.

The proposed cut to the daily rate for PHP (APC Code 0033) represents the third in three years for this important level of care for people with mental illnesses and the elderly.

For CY 2005, the PHP daily rate was cut by 2 percent from $286.82 to $281.33, and was cut again by 12 percent in CY 2006, to $245.91. The proposed 15 percent cut for CY 2007 would reduce the rate to $208.27.

Last year's cut resulted in the closing of many programs in community mental health centers and hospitals across the nation, shifting patients to more expensive care in nursing homes, emergency departments, and inpatient hospitals. Further cuts threaten access to this cost-saving benefit for the mentally ill at a time when the number of people needing these services is increasing. In fact, the projected rates are so low that it may be impossible for community mental health centers to offer a PHP program. That result makes absolutely no policy sense and directly contravenes congressional intent.

Action Needed
The National Council needs you to contact all U.S. House offices. The message is: sign on to the letter to Secretary Leavitt circulated by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and oppose the cut to the PHP rate. The deadline to sign on to the letter is the end of the day on Thursday, October 5.

To find your Representatives contact information, click here: www.house.gov, or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.