SNFs prepare to absorb nearly $800 million in Medicare cuts

Alan Rosenbloom, president and CEO of The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care

Medicare cuts scheduled to hit in January will cost skilled nursing facilities close to $800 million in fiscal year 2014, a new analysis estimates.

Under the Budget Control Act, the mandated 2% across-the-board Medicare cuts would hit skilled nursing facilities in California, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Massachusetts the hardest, according to a analysis from Avalere Health and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. The cuts would total $782.3 million.

But SNFS will also have to absorb at least $3 billion over the next decade from “bad-debt” provisions, leaving the sector slated to absorb a total of $48 billion in funding losses between fiscal years 2012 and 21, the groups stated.

“Demographic reality and the rapidly evolving nature of our patient population requires a more rational, cost-effective Medicare post-acute payment system-- not more irrational Medicare cuts that jeopardize ongoing access to quality care,” Alan G. Rosenbloom, the president of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, said in a statement.

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