Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association (AHCA) today praised U.S Representative Zach Space (D-OH) and thirty-four of his Congressional colleagues, for initiating a new letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) asking her to protect the care needs of our nation’s most vulnerable nursing home residents by ensuring a key Medicaid relief measure is included in a final health care reform bill.
“Skilled nursing facilities throughout our nation face the threat – due to funding struggles – of not being able to provide frail and vulnerable patients the quality nursing home care the need and deserve,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA. “As Congress now proceeds to quickly merge the U.S. House and Senate health reform bills into a final package, the long term care community commends Representative Space and his Congressional colleagues for initiating this letter to Speaker Pelosi letter letting her know how important it is for Medicaid funding to be strengthened as a means of preserving long term care access.”
The letter, which was signed by thirty-five members of the House of Representatives, asks Speaker Pelosi to include in the final bill what is known as the Temporary Nursing Facility Supplemental Payment Program. This provision is vital to the continued viability of high quality care to seniors due to the fact it establishes temporary supplemental payments to nursing homes with high percentages of Medicare and Medicaid patients. This effort helps compensate for the growing gap between the actual cost of providing quality care and what is actually reimbursed by government.
A recent study of the nation’s faltering Medicaid program recently released by AHCA found Medicaid underfunded the cost of care nationally by $4.6 billion in 2009. “Difficult fiscal challenges in the majority of state capitols across the nation only further highlights the need for sufficient Medicaid funding – along with Medicare funding stability – as a bottom line necessity to sustaining a strong facility workforce, and the quality improvement programs already working to help our nation’s elderly,” Yarwood continued.
“With Congress rushing to complete this legislation, America’s frail and elderly, along with the front line workers who provide for their care every day, have been significantly helped by the important advocacy effort of Representative Space and his colleagues,” Yarwood concluded. “We thank these champions for not just for taking the time to understand the complexities of the issue, and the threat to seniors’ care – but also for actually doing something to help fix the problem.”
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.