Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) praised Senate Finance Health Subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for holding today’s hearing to discuss the policy rationale for including long term care in any broader-based reform plan, and said that the long term care profession looks forward to outlining for Congress a proposal to do just that in the days ahead.
“It is very clear that the comprehensive, systemic healthcare reform that the nation requires to meet its future obligations cannot be successfully achieved unless long term care reform is included in the process,” said AHCA President & CEO Bruce Yarwood. “All stakeholders must have a seat at the table to ensure that America has a long term care system that meets the health needs of our seniors, preserves choice, and is cost-effective and sustainable for the decades ahead when demographic realities will be thrust upon us.”
NCAL Executive Director Dave Kyllo stated, “Home and community based services (HCBS) care and facility-based long term care should be complementary to one another as both fulfill consumers’ unique needs along the spectrum of health care and services. An individual’s choice in the type and setting of long term care and services must be preserved across the entire care continuum. Failure to meet this need would leave an enormous hole in any broad reform plan.”
Recognizing the need for a comprehensive, integrated reform initiative, AHCA, NCAL and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care have engaged Avalere Health to develop a plan that addresses the need for change. The proposed model for both financing and delivery of long term and post-acute care is patient-centered, sustainable, and cost-effective. Avalere Health will soon release an updated long term and post-acute care financing and coverage reform model that will expand upon the existing plan, and include conservative cost-estimates that illustrate how the comprehensive reform plan will provide budgetary savings over time.
The AHCA/NCAL leaders also noted that in many states, according to a 2008 Eljay study, Medicaid spending once again exceeded state budgets. This, they said, contributes to a mounting concern that future growth is projected to vastly exceed weak revenue growth causing Medicaid to consume the largest share of state budgets. “As Medicaid is the single largest purchaser of nursing home and other long term care services, we intend to make every stakeholder aware that state Medicaid programs simply cannot continue to operate in a deficit if they are going to successfully meet individuals’ care needs today and in the years to come,” Yarwood said.
“As our Governors are keenly aware as they cope with disastrous state economic conditions, they too have an enormous stake in long term care financing reform,” the AHCA leader concluded. “We intend to be very aggressive in ensuring that state and federal lawmakers alike understand why the Avalere plan is right for the times and right for every American.”
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) represent nearly 11,000 non-profit and proprietary facilities dedicated to continuous improvement in the delivery of professional and compassionate care provided daily by millions of caring employees to 1.5 million of our nation's frail, elderly and disabled citizens who live in nursing facilities, assisted living residences, subacute centers and homes for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit www.ahca.org or www.ncal.org.