As federal government shutdown draws closer, the director of a home hospital program says his team is working to make sure chronically ill patients are re-admitted to the hospital. The program stopped admitting patients three days ago and has slowly drawn down their census to six patients on Tuesday, some of whom will return to the hospital.

"In the absence of any congressional action, we have had to wind down our census," said Dr. Constantinos Michaelidis, medical director of Hospital at Home at UMass Memorial Health in Worcester.

The UMass Memorial at Home program allows patients to receive hospital level care from the comfort of their own space. A Medicare provision which enables the program is set to expire at midnight Tuesday, at the same time as a government shutdown. With that

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