AHCA/NCAL Praise Smith, Lincoln, Collins Long Term Care Legislation Designed To Advance Quality Improvement Effort In Nation's Nursing Homes, USA

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 08 Aug 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) praised U.S. Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Susan Collins (R-ME) for introducing comprehensive, bipartisan legislation late yesterday that is designed to help sustain quality improvement gains in long term care settings across the country, saying the Long Term Care Quality and Modernization Act of 2007 (S. 1980) is an important step toward resolving a variety of systemic problems facing seniors and the long term care providers who care for them.

AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Bruce Yarwood remarked, "We commend Senators Smith, Lincoln, and Collins for introducing what amounts to a comprehensive, bipartisan legislative template to help sustain quality improvements in our nation's nursing homes and other long term care settings. The Smith-Lincoln-Collins bill, if implemented, would serve to buoy both our successful quality improvement partnership with the federal government and our profession-wide quality initiatives. From a broad-based perspective, this highly significant bill would help to resolve many structural and financial impediments that now threaten these quality improvement efforts over the long term."

Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Smith remarked yesterday upon the bill's introduction, "Nursing homes play a vital role in providing quality long term care and quality of life to the nation's frail, elderly, and disabled. In order to ensure the vitality of their important work, this legislation addresses several complications that the nursing home profession is experiencing such as workforce shortages, advances in medical technology, and management funding."

Senator Lincoln, who serves alongside Senator Smith on both the Senate Finance and Special Committee on Aging, commented, "This bill goes a long way toward improving quality and support in long term care by removing barriers and making critical investments in our long term care workforce and improvements such as health information technology." The Arkansas Senator continued, "Modernizing this sector is more and more critical as we strive to meet the demands of our growing aging population."

Another member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Senator Collins said, "It is estimated that as many as 60 percent of Americans reaching 65 years of age will need long term care services at some point during their lives. More than 2.5 million frail, elderly, and disabled individuals currently rely on the services provided by our nation's long term care providers, and this population will grow exponentially as the baby boom generation ages. The Long Term Care Quality and Modernization Act of 2007 will help to improve care for those currently receiving long term care services, and will also help us prepare to meet our future long term care needs."

The Long Term Care Quality and Modernization Act of 2007 would enhance long term care quality by promoting investment in capital improvements and health information technology, encouraging collaboration between providers and surveyors, assisting in the creation of a stable and well-trained workforce, and addressing access and financing concerns. Equally important, the bill begins the process of modernizing the fragmented, inefficient Medicare payment system by removing barriers to care for nursing home residents.

Key provisions of the bill include:

Modernize Medicare Payment Policies - The bill would address needed changes in Medicare payment policies by:

1. Mandating that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) annually update consolidated billing rules to take into account the changing practice of medicine and clarify that Medicare may provide Prospective Payment System-excluded (PPS-excluded) services such as freestanding Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and radiation therapy services, certain chemotherapy medications, and all ambulance services.
2. Mandating feasible and appropriate Medicare coverage that supports clinically appropriate diabetes management for skilled nursing facility residents.

Long Term Care Facility Capital Improvements - Congress would establish a statutory 15-year depreciation schedule for long term care facility improvement and modernizations.

Invest in Long Term Care Facility Health Information Technology - Investment in health information technology is imperative to enhancing efficiency and economy in delivery of long term care services, and in developing and monitoring quality systems and processes. The bill would establish a twenty percent (20%) credit for investment in long term care facilities' health information technology, including computers, related equipment, and software.

Alleviate the Workforce Shortage - To help alleviate the long term care nursing workforce shortage, the bill would amend the Nurse Reinvestment Act to permanently remove the exclusion on loan repayment for nurses working in for-profit health care settings and set-aside funds to create a national nursing database to forecast future supply and demand changes.

Training of Surveyors, Providers, and Nurse Aides - The bill would create a demonstration project that would allow states to jointly train surveyors and providers as changes are implemented regarding regulations, guidelines, and policy governing nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (ICFs/MRDD) operations. The bill also would amend current law to allow nursing facilities to resume their nurse aide training program when deficiencies that resulted in the prohibition of the training have been corrected and compliance demonstrated.

AHCA/NCAL appreciates the efforts of these key legislators and long term care advocates-Senators Smith, Lincoln, and Collins-in championing this important bill and will work toward enactment of the Long Term Care Quality and Modernization Act of 2007 (S. 1980).

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. For more information, please visit http://www.ahca.org

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