With income margins decimated by Medicare and Medicaid cuts and access to capital strangled, skilled nursing facilities will be unable to care for the nation's booming senior population unless changes are made, according to a new report from the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.
May 30, 2013
Almost immediately after the 2006 schism that threatened to fully tear them fully apart, some stakeholders wanted to see the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care remain united with the American Health Care Association. Gradual Alliance attrition, combined with the effects of hard knocks from regulators and lawmakers, helped make it a reality this week.
May 28, 2013
The nation's two strongest long-term care provider lobbying groups are uniting to form a singular, more powerful voice, the pair announced Tuesday morning.
May 07, 2013
Post-acute providers have improved across a broad range of quality measures, according to a comprehensive report released by the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. Providers improved outcomes in 13 of 15 measures — such as pain, pressure ulcers and pneumonia vaccination — between 2011 and the second quarter of 2012.
April 01, 2013
Last month, the skilled sector figured out sequester cuts would cost providers more than $782 million in payments. Then Paul Ryan broke out the meat cleaver.
March 11, 2013
I was hoping to get clear answers about the sector's future at the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry's regional meeting last week in San Diego. I did, but I also must admit there were times when it was hard to give the various speakers the attention they deserved.
January 17, 2013
Skilled nursing facilities, already bracing for scheduled Medicare payment cuts of $65 million, face further losses that could total hundreds of millions of dollars, according to an Avalere Health analysis.
December 20, 2012
As federal debt negotiations continued Wednesday, an industry group unveiled its three-part plan for reform in post-acute care.
September 12, 2012
A scheduled 2% sequestration cut in federal Medicare payments to providers could result in the loss of thousands of U.S. healthcare jobs, a new report warns.
Nursing homes are planning to layoff direct caregivers, reduce employee benefits and cancel facility expansion plans as a result of cumulative Medicare and Medicaid cuts, a new survey finds.
Forty states have either frozen or cut Medicaid-financed nursing home care for seniors between 2009 and 2011, a new survey has found.
November 08, 2011
The Medicare PPS skilled nursing facility final rule that was enacted Oct. 1 could result in 20,000 nursing home layoffs nationwide and another 20,000 jobs lost to abandoned expansion activity, according to results of a new national survey.
August 16, 2011
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' 11.1% reimbursement rate cut to skilled-nursing facilities will reduce Medicare payments to the entire sector by $79 billion over 10 years, according to a new report. The regulation, which is scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1, also will reduce national economic activity by $6.75 billion in FY 2012, according to a report released Monday by research firm Avalere Health.
December 06, 2010
Despite pleas from the long-term care community, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is tentatively recommending a 0% market-basket update to skilled nursing facilities for fiscal year 2012.
August 11, 2010
President Obama Tuesday signed a bill sending $26.1 billion in aid, including $16.1 billion in Medicaid relief, to states.
August 06, 2010
Long-term care leaders on Thursday praised the Senate for approving an extension of enhanced Medicaid assistance to cash-strapped states.
May 19, 2010
Two long-term care leaders, along with nearly all U.S. governors, have joined a majority of members of the House of Representatives in urging congressional leaders to extend a temporary increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP).
March 31, 2010
A recent Washington Post analysis of the use of "ultra-high" reimbursement categories for nursing homes "paints a negative, incomplete picture of the growing role and tangible benefits associated with skilled nursing facility (SNF) patient care," two leading long-term care advocates said.
January 06, 2010
The Long-Term Quality Alliance, which was formally introduced Tuesday, is dedicated to improving the quality of long-term services and supports.
September 15, 2009
Congress is considering healthcare reform legislation that proposes deep cuts to Medicare spending for nursing home care. Such a bill would not be the way to achieve meaningful reform.
