Medicaid funding
Foxbusines.com has a good article about the difficulty the government has in evaluating funding levels for Medicaid. The article insists that an expansive view of nursing homes industry is needed to determine funding needs.
The Bush Administration's FY 2009 budget will include no Medicare funding update to help care for the growing number of seniors who need high acuity nursing home care. The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care will work to demonstrate that Medicare funding decisions can be accurately determined only by taking a more expansive, complete view of the industry's operating environment.
This White House has often cited the work of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance, stated, "On behalf of nursing home patients and the hundreds of thousands of caregivers who serve them, we are disappointed that again, MedPAC's flawed funding policy guidance is being adopted, and superseding the economic realities experienced by providers in the long term care marketplace. By failing to consider the substantial Medicaid payment shortfalls to nursing homes in formulating its recommendations, MedPAC provides the Administration, Congress and the public a flawed basis upon which to assess the funding landscape, and to ultimately determine the best policy."
Medicare funding is important when states are cutting Mediciad to balance their budgets.
SOURCE The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care
