Washington, DC - Commenting on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) recommendation that Congress should reject the market basket cost of living update for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in FY 2010, the nation’s leading long term care advocacy organizations warned this ill-advised policy course – coupled with the national recession and deteriorating state budget conditions – undermines and directly conflicts with the economic stimulus objectives advanced by President-elect Obama and congressional leaders in terms of spurring job growth and boosting the U.S. economy.
“We are solidly on record in our desire and availability to help President-elect Obama and Congress achieve the jobs growth and economic activity our nation clearly needs at this time – but MedPAC’s illogical recommendation and the damaging funding cuts they will inflict on the long term care sector and the patients we serve – will ultimately result in lost jobs, not new jobs,” warned Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA. “When America is facing a deep recession and attempting to boost employment in a sector primed for jobs growth, the MedPAC policy guidance is fundamentally off-track for the nation, for our seniors, and for the providers who care for them.”
Alan R. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, said MedPAC should be obligated as a matter of basic responsibility to thoughtfully evaluate the overall economic conditions in which the long term care sector operates: “By ignoring on a wholesale basis the substantial losses nursing homes face due to inadequate Medicaid payments – a gap sure to grow as our Governors are reluctantly forced to make ever-more painful budgetary decisions – MedPAC’s recommendation is bad policy, hurtful to seniors and caregivers, and detrimental to ongoing quality improvement efforts.”
Furthermore, warned Yarwood and Rosenbloom, MedPAC’s recommendation jeopardizes the very jobs that are a critical factor in the provision of quality care, threatens seniors’ continued access to this care, and undermines the overall capacity of the long term care system itself as demographic trends portend greater utilization from a progressively older patient population.
The national long term care leaders also observed that MedPAC’s enduring failure to recognize the growing funding interdependence between Medicare and Medicaid should not prevent the incoming Obama Administration and Congress from making rational, independent determinations regarding the importance of providing this vital annual cost of living adjustment. A recent objective analysis of the nation’s Medicaid system by Eljay, LLC found states will cumulatively under fund the actual cost of providing quality nursing home care by $4.2 billion for 2008.
“We respectfully ask President-elect Obama and congressional leaders to consider the fact rising state budget deficits have traditionally squeezed Medicaid spending and care access for states’ highest risk nursing home patients,” Yarwood said. “Lawmakers must ensure nursing home patients do not end up ensnared between a state Medicaid funding squeeze and the failure of MedPAC to recognize the vital importance of stable Medicare funding,” concluded Rosenbloom.
As the nation’s largest association of long term and post-acute care providers, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) advocates for quality care and services for frail, elderly and disabled Americans. Compassionate and caring employees provide essential care to one million individuals in our 11,000 not-for-profit and proprietary member facilities.