Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (Alliance) today warned that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) recommendation to Congress that it forego a market basket cost of living update for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for FY 2011 will place seniors’ care at risk, put local health care jobs in jeopardy, and undermine the funding stability needed by the SNF sector to sustain the quality improvements cited recently by MedPAC itself.
“Until MedPAC begins to factor into its funding recommendation the worsening state Medicaid quagmire plaguing patients, front line caregivers and Governors alike, we urge Congress to make its funding decisions based upon the need to protect elderly constituents’ care, preserve good paying local jobs, and safeguard the economic stability our profession requires to sustain quality gains,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA, and Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance. “MedPAC’s recommendation is at significant odds with the facts on the ground, economic reality, and simple common sense. MedPAC itself said just three months ago that quality in the nation‘s nursing homes has been ‘slowly improving since 2001,’ and we want to keep it that way.”
In addition to noting that the October 2009 Medicare cuts of over $12 billion have contributed significantly to the fragility of the SNF sector itself, Yarwood and Rosenbloom said the growing cumulative funding pressure placed on Medicaid and Medicare has significantly reduced facilities’ skilled nursing resource-base at a time when patients have more medically-complex needs than ever before.
According to a new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a total of 44 states and the District of Columbia reported that program enrollment and spending trends are above the levels projected at the beginning of the 2010 fiscal year. A majority of states, the report notes, are facing the prospect of mid-fiscal year 2010 program cutbacks to balance their budgets. Severe challenges are expected to persist next year as the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) is scheduled to end on December 31, 2010. In addition to the fact seniors in many states have already endured or will soon face substantial Medicaid funding cuts as a result of state legislative actions, the long term care leaders also pointed to a recent Eljay analysis of the nation’s Medicaid program finding Medicaid cumulatively underfunded the actual cost of providing quality nursing home care by $4.7 billion in 2009.
“In addition to threatening patient care and undermining employment stability and opportunities, the worsening Medicare and Medicaid cost-squeeze also inhibits facilities’ continued investment in cost effective care,” Yarwood and Rosenbloom continued. “This is diametrically contrary to the health policy objectives of Congress, our nation’s Governors, and the Administration itself. The Medicare funding update is a key pillar upon which our profession depends to ensure the provision of quality nursing home care can continue.”
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.