While the nursing home industry can be proud of its accomplishments in Washington over the last year, many challenges await. These include card-check legislation in Congress and a problematic five-star rating system, Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, said Monday at the 59th Annual Convention & Expo's Opening General Session in Nashville.

Medicaid paid nursing home operators an average of $13.72 less than allowable costs per resident day in 2006. That is a shortfall of $4.6 billion overall, according to preliminary results of an annual study released Monday at the American Health Care Association's annual conference in Nashville.

Many consumers are ill-informed about Medicare and Medicaid's role in long-term care, and greater planning could help reduce the danger of soaring Medicaid costs, according to a new report from America's Health Insurance Plans.

Health officials on Tuesday issued new voluntary guidelines for nursing homes to help them avert fraud and abuse in Medicaid, Medicare and other federal healthcare programs. The 17-page long document was published in the Federal Register and complements guidance issued in 2000.

A new survey of state officials shows that increasing budget pressures could lead states to start clicking down their Medicaid programs. Most have resisted cuts thus far, but the odds of that continuing are becoming less and less likely, according to a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The Senate is likely to adopt a House version of an economic stimulus package that would infuse $14.7 billion into state Medicaid programs.

Democrats in the House and Senate last week released economic stimulus package proposals that would expand Medicaid funding to states.

After a record 85-day lawmaker impasse, California finally has a new budget. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed the $143 billion spending bill Tuesday, nearly one-fourth of the way through the fiscal year.

More than 8,000 nursing home residents have filed a federal, class-action lawsuit in Florida, claiming they are being forced to live in facilities against their wishes. Plaintiffs accuse the nursing-home lobby of pressuring state lawmakers to make it harder for individuals to receive Medicaid-covered home- and community-based care.

A new study adds to an established body of evidence showing that poor people and Medicaid beneficiaries are slower to be treated for heart attacks than counterparts with more money or better insurance. Part of the problem lies with the delayed recognition of heart-attack symptoms in poorer areas, researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill said.