CBO: CHAMP Act Slashes Seniors' Nursing Home Care 2.7 Billion Dollars Over Five Years, USA

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare;  Public Health
Article Date: 29 Jul 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Despite the effort by the House Ways and Means Committee to spin the hastily-crafted Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 (CHAMP Act) as beneficial to "America's Greatest Generation," new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, in fact, has determined that the nation's oldest, highest acuity nursing home residents will suffer Medicare Part A budget cuts of $2.7 billion over five years, prompting the American Health Care Association (AHCA) to question why this highly vulnerable population has been singled out for the highest level of cuts.

"The CHAMP Act, as it now stands in the House Ways and Means Committee, is highly detrimental to the long term care needs of 'America's Greatest Generation' as well as future generations - contrary to the claims being made by its proponents," stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA. "Cutting funding for America's oldest, sickest seniors by $2.7 billion over five years, as CBO has determined, is the wrong way to finance the broader objectives of the legislation. It is incumbent upon the bill's supporters to explain why this highly vulnerable population must suffer from the highest level of cuts."

Yarwood also said the CHAMP Act, in its current form, will have "negative repercussions" on the nation's more than 15,000 skilled nursing facilities, every one of the nation's nearly 1.5 million nursing home residents, and every one of the nation's more than 1.7 million caring employees who work to provide quality care to U.S. seniors. Cuts of this magnitude could restrict the profession's capacity to hire and retain well-qualified nursing staff who provide essential high quality care at the bedside.

"The more one looks at the financing details of the CHAMP Act, the more one can see that rural, urban and suburban seniors - and those who care for them - have an enormous stake in ensuring these Medicare cuts are rescinded," he concluded. "When Medicare funding for skilled nursing services is stable, quality of care and services improves. When Medicare funding is cut in a manner similar to the CHAMP Act, our nation's long term care infrastructure deteriorates - to the detriment of the Greatest Generation as well as future retirees."

The American Health Care Association represents 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.

http://www.ahca.org