On June 19th, the Senate Finance and House Ways
& Means Committees released a post-acute stakeholder letter asking for
input on reform of post-acute care (PAC). For these purposes, PAC
includes long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehab facilities, skilled nursing
facilities and home health agencies. These health care
committees typically do not ask for comment on issues in such a public way so
this request is unprecedented. There has been criticism in the past that
the committees release significant changes in policy at the end of the year
when various programs are expiring with very little time for reasoned
input.
Place and race influence healthy life expectancy at age 65, U.S. health officials said recently. Blacks across the country and whites in the South have the lowest healthy life expectancy after age 65, according to 2007-2009 data analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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