Long Term Leaders Express Concern About Squeeze on State Medicaid Budgets, Ability to Sustain Care Quality Gains
Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 15:00 CST
ATLANTA, March 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As the federal Medicaid Advisory Commission met today in Atlanta to discuss and deliberate upon pending federal Medicaid reform proposals, Georgia and national long term care leaders expressed concern about the incremental squeeze on state Medicaid budgets, and said the growing disparity between the rising cost of providing quality care and actual government reimbursement levels threatens the ability to sustain nursing home care quality gains.
"As we are seeing federal efforts to significantly reduce states' ability to utilize provider fees and inter-governmental transfers as revenue sources, it is more important than ever for transitional funding strategies to be pursued concurrent with the development and implementation of broader Medicaid reforms," stated Fred Watson, president of the Georgia Nursing Home Association. "Reducing funding without identifying and allowing the use of alternative revenue sources would undoubtedly harm Georgia's most vulnerable, medically- fragile seniors in need of high quality facility care."
Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), said there is some cause for optimism that the Bush Administration is hearing the plea of the nation's Governors when it comes to the growing squeeze on state Medicaid budgets due to proposed federal cuts, and pointed out that National Governors' Association (NGA) Chair Mike Huckabee (R-AR) believes headway is being made on this front.
"The nation's governors just ended their annual winter meeting in Washington saying they continue to have concerns about elements of President Bush's budget that would shift more health care costs to the states, but they also expressed confidence that headway is being made in convincing the Administration to rethink proposals affecting Medicaid payments," Yarwood said. "We have worked successfully with this Administration to help enhance the quality of America's nursing home care, and we seek continued progress through the implementation of rationale, fair policies that will facilitate continued progress."
Yarwood noted that the national accounting firm, BDO Seidman, undertakes an annual study to measure the shortfall between Medicaid reimbursement to nursing home providers and the state's allowable nursing home costs. The results from 2005, representing over 86 percent of the Medicaid patient days nationwide, indicate the national average shortfall in Medicaid reimbursement was $12.58 per Medicaid patient day - meaning states pay providers $12.58 less than the actual daily cost of providing quality care. An update from BDO Seidman will be released later in 2006.
AHCA supports broad-based reforms to the Medicaid program, though it recommends that the commissioners fully investigate the overall implications of reform. "Current models, such as the one in place in Oregon, have succeeded in greatly expanding the home and community based services (HCBS) program, yet the reform has not had the desired effect of lowering long term care costs for the state," stated Jim Carlson, Executive Director of the Oregon Health Care Association. "Consequently, there is now growing pressure on the HCBS program to hold down its costs and Oregon continues to struggle with mounting long term care costs. Therefore, we encourage the Commission to investigate all potential outcomes of any new Medicaid models in order to avoid such unintended consequences."
The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living represent 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 more than 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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Source: U.S. Newswire
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