A study released today by the Washington D.C.-based National Association for Home Care and Hospice shows that the nurses, therapists, home care aides and others who serve elderly and disabled patients in their homes drive, on average, more miles annually than many driving professionals including UPS drivers.
"Caring for over seven million patients annually with 428 million visits, these dedicated providers of home care and hospice are feeling the same pain at the pump as other consumers, but they carry the added burden of the Administration's deep cuts into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, says Val J. Halamadaris, President of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC*). "These draconian cuts ignored the cost of living increases, chief among these is the rising price of gasoline -- a commodity most essential for these traveling 'road warriors' of mercy. Home care patients are homebound - they are so sick, so chronically ill, they cannot leave their homes without assistance. If nurses do not get in their cars to visit them, there is no way to reach them. What will be precipitated is a full-scale national emergency," added Halamadaris.Norman DeLisle, MDRC
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