AHCA Urges Congress Not To Cut 700 Million Dollars In Medicare For Seniors, USA

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

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The American Health Care Association (AHCA) expressed alarm about possible cuts to Medicare long term care funding that would jeopardize current and future care needs of America's most vulnerable population of frail elderly. AHCA also raised concern that the decade-long effort to fix the devastation to the nation's long term care system caused by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA) would be scuttled.

"The quality of life for millions of America's most vulnerable seniors depends upon the quality nursing home care our members provide each day. Like the patients under our care, we worry that possible cuts to Medicare will turn back the clock an entire decade - all the way back to the dark days of the 1997 BBA," warned Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA.

Yarwood is referring to reports on Capitol Hill that the U.S. House of Representatives could be poised to recommend a $700 million cut in Medicare funding for FY 2008. The Medicare funds are critical to ongoing care quality improvement initiatives, staff retention efforts and other rising costs related to ensuring U.S. seniors receive the highest quality nursing home care.

Since passage of the Balanced Budget Act in 1997, which resulted in approximately 15 percent of nursing facilities seeking bankruptcy protection, skilled nursing providers have been working with Congress and the Administration to achieve the economic stability that is essential to delivering quality long term care. Achieving that stability has been more challenging since the Medicare program has been propping up inadequate reimbursement from Medicaid, which is responsible for funding the care of two out of every three nursing home patients and which underfunded nursing facility care by $4.5 billion in 2006.

"Patient care costs are rising in the long term care sector just like they are elsewhere in the economy, and this adjustment is critical to maintaining the long term care profession's drive to improve quality care standards," continued Yarwood. "Given the dramatic cost increases we face in key areas including labor, energy, liability and capital, failure by Congress to provide an annual cost of living update is illogical and wrong, especially as these cost increases stem from factors largely beyond providers' control."

Yarwood also noted that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke recently testified on Capitol Hill and said Congress must budget for the rising costs of retirement and medical benefits or face a "fiscal crisis" in coming decades.

Yarwood concluded, "The matter at hand is simple. When Medicare funding for skilled nursing services is stable, quality of care and services improves. When Medicare funding is inconsistent and unstable, our nation's long term care infrastructure deteriorates, to the detriment of every senior today and every retiree tomorrow."

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

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