Group Oppose Cuts to Medicare for Americas Nursing Home Patients
By nursing-home-lawyer | April 25, 2007
There’s a movement afoot to educate Congress about the value of Medicare to to nursing home residents.
Providers Join Forces to Launch Advertising Campaign to Oppose Cuts to Medicare for Americas Nursing Home Patients - Yahoo News
Proposals calling for nearly $11 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next five years would have a negative impact on seniors who rely on this benefit for skilled nursing care. While nursing homes receive only 4.8% of Medicare dollars, the proposals call for nursing homes to absorb 26% of the cuts in 2008 alone. Proposals also call for cuts to the nations Medicaid programs, which fund care for two out of three nursing home patients, and which studies show already underfund nursing home care by $4.5 billion a year.The proposed Medicare cuts come at a time when the quality in nursing homes is improving. A GAO report released this week, says that from 2000 to 2005 - a period during which Medicare payments to SNFs stabilized - the number of facilities with serious deficiencies declined nearly 40%. More importantly, nursing homes have improved care in several key clinical areas during this time period. Government funding is crucial to maintaining such improvements and strengthening Americas long term care infrastructure, since nearly 80 percent of nursing home patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
“It is no coincidence that nursing homes have achieved significant quality improvements in recent years, while Medicare funding has been stable,” said Alan Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance. “Nursing homes consistently have the lowest operating margins among health care providers. The proposed cuts in Medicare would jeopardize continued quality progress. This campaign is designed to help policymakers and the public understand the damage these cuts would cause, not just to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who receive care in Americas skilled nursing homes each year, but also to the hundreds of thousands of workers who provide patients with quality care.”
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Topics: Medicare |
