Posted on 11/09/2010 3:29:51 AM PST by markomalley
A Republican-controlled House is unlikely to extend the enhanced Medicaid funding for states in last year's Recovery Act, the head of a nursing home trade association said Monday. A return to the initial federal share (known as FMAP) would be particularly painful for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, who rely on Medicaid to pay about two-thirds of their patients' bills.
"I just have a very hard time" seeing Republicans pass an FMAP bill, said Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association.
Yarwood said the FMAP situation will force a discussion on long-term care, which he said was hardly addressed during the healthcare reform debate. As lawmakers respond to voters' concerns about the deficit and cut back on Medicaid and Medicare, a long-term care sector that relies on government spending to cover about 85 percent of its patients faces a crossroads.
"We stick out like a giant target because of the deficit problem," Yarwood said.
The healthcare reform law did create a voluntary contribution program known as the CLASS Act, but Yarwood said that while he hopes it works, it's still untested and few businesses have signed up so far to enroll their employees. And some Republicans want to repeal the provision out of concerns that it could turn into another entitlement program if beneficiaries' contributions can't cover its costs.
To address the industry's funding challenges, Yarwood said, AHCA has reached out to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Brookings Institution to create pilot programs where the federal government would reimburse providers based on the "condition, needs and characteristics of the patient rather than the post-acute care setting."
AHCA is also lobbying to get technical changes to Medicare payments in the physician payment bill that Congress will have to take up during the lame-duck session to prevent a 30 percent cut in Medicare payment rates. AHCA's other priority in that so-called "doc fix" bill will be passage of a year-long exemption from reimbursement caps on physical, speech/language pathology and occupational therapy services, which were capped at $1,860 each for 2010.
Yarwood added that, even if enhanced Medicaid funding is off the table next year, AHCA would still fight for a continuation of a provision in the Recovery Act requiring states pay most claims within 30 days.
The best way to solve it is to shuffle nursing care patients off to the Great Hereafter.
I’m sure its been taken care of.
“The best way to solve it is to shuffle nursing care patients off to the Great Hereafter.”
That’s absolutely right; what is the motivation for our new immigrant hordes to provide anything for the elderly “Americans”? Many Americans brought this upon themselves, sacrificing offspring for careers which at this point have left many of them high & dry...hope that was worth trading children for dogs & cats.
Every good or service provided for tax dollars should be on a simple cost + basis.
Nursing homes are the PITS and they are WAY too expensive for the services they provide.
The people you are thinking of are overwhelmingly a long way yet from needing nursing home care. Most people in nursing homes today are from the previous generation.
My own 84-year old mother is an example. She died this year in an assisted-living facility because the staff loved her enough to provide nursing home-type care. She refused to be a burden on my sister, even though my sister wanted to care for her.
Those are the people currently in nursing homes, most of whom sacrificed everything for their children, in the '40's and 50's. Spoiling them rotten in the process, too, producing the people you are thinking of.
The driven, career-first people you are thinking of purchased long-term care insurance, and don't need public assistance.
“The driven, career-first people you are thinking of purchased long-term care insurance, and don’t need public assistance.”
I’d imagine that’s one of the first bills on the chopping block when you haven’t worked in 12 months (even though it shouldn’t be). I work with many people 60+ who are looking at this closely for the first time.
Condolences on the passing of your mother; may she be at peace.
Medicaid was never intended to keep seniors in nursing homes. It does so because some clever lawyers have figured out how to make people appear to qualify, while protecting their children’s inheritance. In effect, the taxpayers are subsidizing inheritances.
Exactly right. The nursing home my mother-in-law was in for (a year) cost us about 70K for that year. They kept telling us to change her status to indigent so that medicare would cover the cost of the place. We didn’t because she had the money to pay, but it does make one wonder how many others were being paid for by the taxpayer to protect Junior’s inheritance.
“They kept telling us to change her status to indigent so that medicare would cover the cost of the place.”
No, you meant Medicaid, not Medicare. I am always baffled how these completely independent programs are confused and not understood by tax-payers. Why can’t news media highlight this important information? I bet there are very few Europeans that understand that we have excellent health care for indigents that even covers nursing homes...Medicaid.
The problem is that our entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, have be usurped by millions that should not qualify for this program.
I just purchased a Long Term Care insurance policy, and am satisfied with the terms/cost. There are several reputable companies offering this benefit. I chose Genworth for several reasons including their 30 year successful LTC offerings, and good health discount. I am a health provider not involved in sales/representation.
It was whatever program was for old people. She was in her 80’s. We told them she wasn’t indigent, but they told us to change her finances to show she was so that the program would cover her nursing home costs. I don’t why that would have benefited them. We didn’t do it because it was wrong.
Everything the government subsidizes costs more. The subsidized industries be it medical, senior care, construction, or even solar, costs more when there is government money to be consumed. Unfortunately this perverts normal market forces, legitimate cost benefit analysis, and comparison of alternatives. Consequently, those that would otherwise pay for these services, at a fair price, can’t afford the service because they’re effectively competing against phony federal dollars for the service. So in virtually every way, the “village” is now a substitute for the family unit with dire consequences, and at much higher cost.
My great grandmother’s care cost 2000 per month in 1965
Unfortunately I have aging relatives and have learned a few things I wish I didnt:
1) Nursing care is very expensive, here in MD it is about 6K per month
2) the number #1 reason it is required is strokes. In past years people didn't survive strokes. Now you see those in 50s,60s, 70s mostly paralyzed in wheelchairs in nursing care center/homess
3) Immigrants are the ones doing these unpleasant jobs (nurse's aids) mostly from Caribbean. Americans and many others like Mexicans don't want those dirty depressing jobs.
Believe me you do NOT want to live to be in one of these places. Even at 6K per month the patients are dirty and spend long periods of time in their waste matter because 6K does not go far in MD (not enough help can be hired and it's unionized.) This is what is going to bankrupt this nation and as you can see there is no happy solution.
“This is what is going to bankrupt this nation and as you can see there is no happy solution.”
It might not be a happy solution, and it still costs money, but nobody in my family has ever lived in a nursing home. That is probably because I come from big families; there is always someone who can help out, and the alternative is not an alternative at all...We’ll never be rich, but we can live with ourselves.
Obamacare Endgame: Doctors Will be Fined or Jailed if they Put Patients First
by Dr. Elaina George
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