LHCG’s Keith Myers Responds

Wow.  What a day.  You take one little Fortune 500 CEO to task on his position regarding payment cuts and the sky falls in.

I believe that all of us have the not only the right but also the responsibility to question decisions and recommendations that may affect our ability to care for patients.  I cannot be polite or demur about something credible that concerns my clients and ultimately their patients because there are certain people who don’t want to hear it.  Mr. Bill Dombi, of NAHC has posted in a public forum that my post was factually false and potentially slanderous and derogatory.  I plead guilty only to the last one assuming we share the definition of derogatory:  expressive of a low opinion.  My post was not at all supportive of an idea that puts my clients in jeopardy.

In the interest of fairness, I have received emails from Keith Myers,   Bill Borne and Bill Dombi today.  I have permission to post Keith’s so it is below.   Bill Borne and I exchanged a couple of emails and he has promised to call me in the morning to clarify a few things.  Mr. Dombi sent a response back that will take time and effort to understand.

As promised, here is the response from LHC’s Keith Myers.

Dear Ms. Haydel,

I’m writing today to clarify LHC Group’s position relative to the recent article published by Reuters

regarding home health reimbursement cuts.

 The article states, “The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation, which includes Amedisys and peers such as Gentiva Health Inc., Almost Family and LHC Group Inc., is lobbying Washington to accelerate the 2012 cuts that are spread out until 2017.”

 Let me clear. LHC Group does not support MedPAC’s proposed acceleration of rebasing and, in fact, is working diligently alongside other members of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, as well as the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, to fight the imposition of co-payments and eliminate (or, at a minimum, lessen the impact of) any further across-the-board cuts to the Medicare home health benefit.

 While I’ll defer to the Alliance to speak on its own behalf, it’s important to note the Alliance is a research organization and is not involved in lobbying or any other legislative activity.

 At LHC Group, we do not support any policy that disproportionately impacts smaller providers. Our goal is to create a reimbursement system that is in the best interest of our entire industry and, most importantly, the patients we all serve.

With Warmest Regards, Keith G. Myers

Chairman and CEO

LHC Group Inc.