Altering the home care agency/client relationship: notice requirements

Many older and disabled individuals regularly receive valuable services from home health agencies (HHAs). The unilateral termination or reduction of such services by an HHA may exert a significant impact on the life of a client who has come to depend on those services. The prerogatives of Medicare-certified HHAs to terminate their relationships with clients are constrained today not only by contract and tort law principles, but also by federal statutes and regulations establishing Conditions of Participation, including provisions concerning clients' rights. A recent important federal judicial decision interpreted and expanded the legal responsibilities of HHAs to provide formal notice to their Medicare clients before terminating or reducing home health care services to those clients, regardless of the reason for ending or altering the relationship. This article critically discusses the background, holding, and practice implications of the 2004 Lutwin v. Thomson decision, which imposes these notice requirements on HHAs.