California Seniors' Medicare-Funded Nursing Home Care to be Cut $75.9 Million if DC Budget Stalemate Not Resolved

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As the U.S. Congress debates the budgetary stalemate and the looming threat of cuts to defense and entitlement programs, the first independent analysis of how much U.S. seniors' Medicare-funded skilled nursing facility (SNF) care would be cut by mandated reductions under the Budget Control Act estimates California seniors' SNF funding (nursing home care) will be cut $75.9 million in January 2013 unless a resolution is achieved. According to the study, this represents the largest cut of all fifty states. Nationally, the cut will be $782.3 million.

"This latest, looming threat to California seniors' nursing home care comes at a time when facilities throughout the state are caring for rising numbers of patients requiring higher and higher levels of care," observed Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC), based in Washington, D.C., and which funded the study. "We need a more rational, cost-effective Medicare post-acute payment system -- not more irrational Medicare cuts that jeopardize California seniors' ongoing access to quality care. There are better, smarter ways to finance our seniors' nursing home care, and a thorough discussion about how to do so is a paramount health policy priority both in Washington and Sacramento."  

The following is the Impact of Sequestration in the Budget Control Act on Medicare Payments to SNFs in FY 2014  (FY 2014 is the first full fiscal year of sequestration reductions under the Budget Control Act; the sequestration provisions take effect on January 2, 2013. Additional methodology notes available at aqnhc.org.)

Rosenbloom noted a recent Politico op-ed by nationally-recognized health care experts Gail Wilensky, Ph.D. and Vincent Mor, Ph.D., which stressed the importance of improved care coordination among providers: "What is needed now is to incentivize hospitals and nursing homes to work together to treat a patient over the course of an entire episode of illness, and to share any savings that could result from joint efforts… Until then, however, further across the board reductions in SNF reimbursements on top of those already put in place runs the risk of harming the very patients who can least afford it."

Contact: Rebecca Reid 410/212-3843 or Leigh Ann Bradley (703) 548-0019

SOURCE Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care