Nursing home providers have intensified lobbying efforts against a proposed regulation that would reduce Medicare outlays to skilled nursing facilities by $770 million in fiscal year 2009.

Nursing homes received another quality drubbing last month after the Government Accountability Office revealed that state inspectors often understate deficiencies, including those about malnutrition, bedsores and abuse, in their annual facility inspection reports.

John Erickson, CEO, Erickson Retirement Communities

Diane Rowland, Executive VP, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

The for-profit long-term care community has been digesting a bitter tasting piece of proposed new legislation in recent weeks.

Charles Grassley, U.S. Senator

The year started off strong for nursing homes -- at least as far as public policy was concerned.

Lawmakers passed federal spending measures recently, but in their haste to wrap up business they also left some work on the table.

Robyn I. Stone: Executive Director, Institute for the Future of Aging Services, AAHSA

Hurricane Katrina forced nursing homes to rethink emergency transportation - and make the federal government take notice.