RESOLUTION 21: Health Care

WHEREAS THE LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS (LULAC) supports the purpose of fostering and enlarging the opportunities for training, education, civil rights, job opportunities, housing, economic development, and welfare of all Hispanics in the United States; and,

WHEREAS, the new Medicare Interim Payment System for home health is having devastating effects on home care providers and patients alike, and;

WHEREAS, the Interim Payment System is reducing access to needed care, particularly for more intensive care need Medicare beneficiaries, and;

WHEREAS, the most frail and most vulnerable of Medicare beneficiaries are most at risk of being most negatively affected by the Interim Payment System, and;

WHEREAS, the Interim Payment System is creating inequities among states, for the most efficient home care agencies, for new providers, and for providers who have long participated in Medicare, and

WHEREAS, many Members of Congress, from both houses and both parties, are calling for solutions to these inherent problems, and;

WHEREAS, some Members of Congress have declared the current situation regarding the Interim Payment System as an emergency situation and acknowledged that mistakes have been made, and;

WHEREAS, some of America's most efficient and upstanding home care providers are on the brink of ceasing operations, and;

WHEREAS, the undersigned organizations represent individuals and agencies from throughout the nation that have identified the changing of the Interim Payment System as a top federal legislative priority this year.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the 1998 National Assembly convened in Dallas, Texas on the 4th day of July, 1998, urge Congress to repeal or make fundamental changes to restore fairness and equity to the new Interim Payment System for home health care within this legislative session.

Approved this 4th day of July, 1998.

Rick Dovalina
LULAC National President