Retirement News : Seniors : $24 Billion in Medicare Cuts to Skilled Nursing Care Threaten ...

$24 Billion in Medicare Cuts to Skilled Nursing Care Threaten ...

Date Added: 07-04-2005

Should steep Medicare cuts proposed for skilled nursing care be approved in the FY 2006 federal budget, the $24 billion hit over ten years could send quality care improvements made in that healthcare setting into a tailspin, long term care providers said today, and put a chokehold on sufficient funding in the states, particularly the top ten hardest hit that will lose thousands of dollars a year. The multi-billion dollar loss in Medicare funds signifies a financial hit of dire proportion given that Medicare has long subsidized the chronically under-funded Medicaid program, and if history repeats itself, could spur a return to the turbulent 1990s period of financial uncertainty for long term care providers.

"Medicare cuts of this proportion will have the effect of a knock-out punch to long term care providers in states across this country who will find themselves reeling into fiscal instability and unable to continue to make the quality improvements applauded by the administration last December," said Stephen Guillard, chairman of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care and CEO of Harborside, a Boston-based long term care provider located in the ninth hardest hit state by Medicare cuts. "It is incomprehensible that long term care providers will be expected to absorb these monumental cuts and continue to deliver the same level of care our frail elderly. To think that the annual loss of thousands of dollars in funding per patient per year will not impact seniors' access to the best care available and long term care providers' ability to prepare for the influx of baby boomers to the system in the next decade, is flawed and illogical reasoning."

The top ten states targeted for the most severe cuts in Medicare funding for skilled nursing are:

State, Ten Year Est. Loss Est. in millions:

New York, $1,694

California, $1,627

Florida, $1,329

Pennsylvania, $1,163

Texas, $1,089

Illinois, $970

Ohio, $960

Michigan, $850

Massachusetts, $756.7

New Jersey, $584.6

Guillard noted the announcement by outgoing HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson in December 2004 that key quality indicators within the administration's Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI), a unique, collaborative public-private partnership between the federal government and long term care providers, show improvement across the board in the nation's nursing homes. In his remarks, Thompson also drew the correlation between adequate funding and the ability of providers to increase the quality of care provided to the frail elderly.

"The Medicare cuts translate into an average reduction of $30 per patient per day over the next ten years," said Guillard. "Direct patient care will be impacted –- there is no avoiding that. We respectfully ask Congress to thoughtfully consider what is at stake with long term care now and in the future before severing funding that is critical to providing appropriate care to our nation's seniors."

In addition to the $24 billion in Medicare cuts, $1.5 billion in so-called "add-ons" will be eliminated in skilled nursing funding as of midnight, Sept. 30 if Congress does not act to prevent the cuts. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended no inflation increase in 2005 for long-term care, as well as no add-on payments. Should Congress accept the MedPAC recommendations, skilled nursing providers will see a 12 percent cut that will cripple the sector and hurt patient care for all patients -– Medicare and Medicaid.

For More Information: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=45429