Washington, DC – A new analysis of the Bush Administration's FY 2009 budget by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) finds the combination of proposed budget cuts and intended regulatory changes will incur a one year, $18.45 per patient day cut in Medicare-financed nursing home care, and will have the most significant negative impact on seniors in California, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Colorado and Florida.
The analysis, computed by the AHCA Reimbursement and Research Department using Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data from the Bush Administration's FY 2009 Budget and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), finds the following:
| Rank |
State |
Total Reduction (Millions) |
Per Patient Day |
| #1 |
California |
$142.60 |
$22.47 |
| #2 |
New Jersey |
$77.50 |
$21.88 |
| #3 |
Nevada |
$6.70 |
$21.13 |
| #4 |
Oregon |
$10.70 |
$20.06 |
| #5 |
Washington |
$28.30 |
$19.99 |
| #6 |
Hawaii |
$2.30 |
$19.92 |
| #7 |
Connecticut |
$42.10 |
$19.91 |
| #8 |
New Hampshire |
$9.20 |
$19.70 |
| #9 |
Colorado |
$17.20 |
$19.52 |
| #10 |
Florida |
$138.20 |
$19.31 |
|
|
|
|
| U.S. Total |
|
$1,710.0 |
$18.45 |
In releasing the new AHCA analysis, Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA, stated, "The combined impact of the Bush Administration's Medicare budget cuts and associated regulatory changes will severely jeopardize the growing complex care needs of America's oldest, sickest seniors – especially when combined with the growing squeeze on state Medicaid budgets."
Yarwood predicted that as more lawmakers on both sides of the aisle learn about the nature and patient impact of proposed budget cuts and regulatory changes as they relate to Medicare-financed nursing home care, they will increasingly insist upon halting their implementation.
"Exacerbating proposed deep budget cuts, the Administration is also attempting to unilaterally implement Medicare 'reforms' that are nothing more than an additional level of funding cuts," Yarwood observed. "In addition to aggressively fighting these cuts in Washington, we will take this policy battle to the state and congressional district level to ensure long term care consumers, and the public at large, understand how these cuts will impact care for themselves and their loved ones and why federal lawmakers must take action to stand up and protect the care for their most vulnerable constituents."
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.