July 9, 1999

As of July 1, patients served by the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center’s Home Care and Hospice Community Care Program are receiving home care through the MGH-Spaulding Home Health Agency.

Like many home health programs, East Boston Home Health Services has been affected by Medicare reform under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA). The BBA reduced reimbursement rates for skilled nursing and other home health services for frail and chronically ill patients nationwide. In East Boston, financial challenges in the health center’s home health program have been exacerbated by the health center’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last January.

"Our hope is that this will be a seamless transition benefiting patients in the East Boston community, the health center and MGH-Spaulding Home Health," says Betty Jane King, interim director of MGH-Spaulding Home Health. "Patients will continue to receive high quality home care from the outstanding clinicians with whom they are familiar. The health center can maintain its commitment to keeping a full range of health care services accessible to the East Boston/Winthrop community. And MGH-Spaulding Home Health will gain home health clinicians with a reputation for excellence and the opportunity to build its presence as a provider of high-quality home health services."

According to King, the transfer of services is not a financial transaction. East Boston Home Health will discharge its current patients, and MGH-Spaulding Home Health will begin to admit patients who choose to use its service. MGH-Spaulding Home Health will hire staff from East Boston Home Health, and then East Boston will withdraw from the Medicare and Medicaid Program as a provider.