Skilled nursing facilities face $782M in cuts under sequester
As lawmakers debate what to do to avoid the sequestration of the Budget Control Act, those getting hit with the mandated cuts, such as defense and healthcare, are making sure Congress understands what the cuts will mean for their industries.
The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care was among the voices in healthcare that pushed its position this week as the House debated and advanced a bill overriding the automatic cuts to defense spending but kept in place cuts to programs like Medicare.
The Alliance released on Wednesday a state-by-state analysis by Avalere Health that estimates the dollar value of the cuts skilled nursing facilities (SNF) will face if the sequestration happens.
Using 2010 Medicare (Part A) cost reports for SNFs, the analysis estimates that in fiscal year 2014, SNFs will take a $782.3 million hit in Medicare funding under the sequester. California, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Massachusetts are expected to be hit the hardest, Avalere said in its analysis.
The Alliance is hoping its advocacy efforts will bring the SNF industry some relief, said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance. “We’re hoping … that we have some success in making it clear to policymakers that nursing facilities are not fertile territory for additional cut backs in this year’s debate,” he said.
Rosenbloom said he hopes that going forward, policymakers will engage in conversations with the SNF community that will “take a more rational look” at the use of Medicare dollars for post-acute care.
In the meantime, with the uncertainty of what will happen with the sequestration and other issues around the federal budget as well as what decision the Supreme Court will make about the healthcare law, Rosenbloom says most SNFs are approaching the future cautiously. They are trying to minimize costs by not undertaking any significant new expenditures, such as investments in electronic medical records, health IT and building upgrades, he said.
