Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association (AHCA) expressed disappointment today over the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC’s) recommendation that skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) should not receive a market basket update for the upcoming fiscal year, citing that the failure to acknowledge the interdependence between Medicare and Medicaid further illustrates the flaws of our current financing system.
“The decision by MedPAC to once again disregard vital information and data in assessing whether the skilled nursing facility sector should receive a regular annual inflation adjustment is unwarranted and unwise,” stated AHCA President and CEO Bruce Yarwood. “This narrow analysis results in significant cost increases for nursing facilities, and only highlights the immediate need of the 2008 presidential candidates to recognize the importance of providing quality care to our nation’s most vulnerable population. We call on them to embrace long term care as a focal point of their platforms.”
Yarwood said that MedPAC’s exclusive focus on Medicare margins in the long term care sector, “does a disservice to frail, elderly, and vulnerable individuals who receive care and services in America’s nursing homes. By ignoring Medicaid, MedPAC’s analysis and recommendations do not present an accurate picture of the long term care marketplace.”
MedPAC’s continuing and exclusive focus on Medicare ignores the real and growing interdependence between Medicare and Medicaid commented AHCA. Even though 66% of skilled nursing facility patients receive Medicaid benefits, Medicaid funding accounts for only half of skilled nursing facility revenues—the reason special consideration of the relationship between Medicare and Medicaid seems particularly relevant to skilled nursing care.
According to a BDO Seidman/Eljay, LLC study released by AHCA in fall 2007, the Medicaid program reimburses $4.4 billion less than the actual cost of nursing home care for the nation’s seniors. This shortfall translates into $13.15 per patient per day less than the cost of care, an amount that has increased 45% since 1999.
“While MedPAC does not include Medicaid as a determinant in recommending government funding policy, the millions of Medicaid patients who rely upon the care we provide do not have the luxury of ignoring the broken funding relationship between both programs,” Yarwood concluded.
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.