Washington, DC - Commenting on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) recommendation that Congress should reject a market basket cost of living update for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in FY 2011, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) said this policy guidance would further serve to destabilize the Medicare funding stability SNF’s require to sustain the provision of quality care, and ignores the historic state budget crises in state capitols across America already cutting seniors’ Medicaid benefits.
“Plain and simple, the MedPAC recommendation is bad for seniors, detrimental to our national and state economies, and illogical in the face of state budgetary chaos wreaking havoc on elderly Americans’ Medicaid benefits,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA. “Further, the MedPAC guidance 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. From a pure policy standpoint, the MedPAC recommendation is indefensible.”
Yarwood said MedPAC’s historical failure to recognize the growing funding interdependence between Medicare and Medicaid “should not prevent Congress from making rational, independent determinations regarding the importance of providing this vital annual cost of living adjustment.” He pointed to a recent objective analysis of the nation’s Medicaid system by Eljay, LLC found states cumulatively under funded the actual cost of providing quality nursing home care by $4.7 billion in 2009.
“In the final analysis, MedPAC’s recommendation puts at risk the ability of facilities to maintain sufficient workforce levels, sustain comprehensive quality improvement programs, and continue caring for our patients in the manner they so clearly deserve,” 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.