News Reports of 2800 Ohio Nursing Home Job Losses Validate Growing Fear Direct Care Staff Reductions Nationally Will Hurt U.S. Seniors' Care

Avalere Facility Survey Suggests Approximately Six Percent of Direct Care Staff Nationally to be Lost in Response to Immediate Shock of 11.1 Percent Medicare Funding Reduction; Three Year Phase-in of Medicare Regulation Urged

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Commenting on new reporting from Gannett News Service that 2800 jobs have been lost in 333 nursing homes throughout Ohio due to the growing Medicaid and Medicare funding squeeze, the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care today warned this represents the leading edge of a national trend that is dangerous to skilled nursing facility (SNF) patients due to the fact direct care staff are being negatively affected by a new federal regulation reducing Medicare funding by 11.1 percent. The regulation, which went into effect October 1, 2011, made substantial changes in payment methodology for therapy services, and crossed the line from a correction into new Medicare cuts.

The progressively negative impact of the regulation, which reduces Medicare funding to nursing homes by $79 billion over 10 years on a national basis, according to Avalere Health -- can be significantly alleviated by simply phasing it in over three years, the Alliance argues. "A gradual phase-in of the federal regulation – which has been done in the past for other provider sectors – can help alleviate a worsening direct care staff layoff crisis that is now a documented fact in Ohio. We respectfully urge Congress to pursue a phase-in of the regulation, and we would be pleased to work with lawmakers to help achieve this logical, fair and responsible policy recourse before Congress adjourns for the year."

An Avalere Health survey of U.S. skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) conducted for the Alliance, released earlier this month, found that in response to the regulation, nursing homes plan to lay off approximately 20,000 workers nationally, and cancel approximately 400 facility expansions or renovations that could have created at least 20,000 new jobs. A new look at the original data, according to the Alliance, finds one-third of companies responding to the national Avalere survey plan to lay off approximately six percent of their staff, on average.

"States such as Ohio and Florida – where state Medicaid funding for nursing homes has already been reduced even before the new Medicare regulation went into effect – are clearly experiencing significant facility instability to the detriment of patient care and local jobs," Rosenbloom continued. "We are especially alarmed by the reporting in Ohio that finds approximately 80 percent of the 2800 losing their job in facilities provide direct care to residents, according to the news reports."

Rosenbloom pointed out that more than 70 percent of all patients in nursing facilities nationwide rely on Medicare and Medicaid funding for care, and said the prospect of yet more Medicare cuts resulting from deliberations related to Sustained Growth Rate (SGR) would be devastating to nursing home patients, and disastrous to facilities, local economies and caregiver jobs. The nation's SNF sector, America's second largest health facility employer, is already slated to absorb a staggering $127 billion in Medicare funding cuts and reductions in the FY 2012-21 budget window due to legislative and regulatory changes over the past five years, the Alliance leader pointed out.

SOURCE Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care