Billions of dollars worth of unintended costs and consequences could be the fallout if the government follows through with a proposal to cut Medicare payments by $1.05 billion next year, nursing home advocates warned.
The proposed Medicare cuts would actually cost more than $3.6 billion in lost business activity and labor income, according to the American Health Care Association and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. Such reductions also could lead to the loss of more than 30,000 healthcare jobs, the long-term care organizations warned.
Should the proposed cuts be enacted, they would “sidetrack our sector’s ongoing ability to create good-paying health jobs,” said AHCA President and CEO Bruce Yarwood.
“Implementation of this Bush-era Medicare regulation will, in fact, cut good health jobs, undermine economic stimulus initiatives, and derail badly needed delivery system reforms already benefiting beneficiaries and taxpayers,” Yarwood said.
The proposed cuts, combined with a recommended annual Medicare inflationary pay hike, would leave providers with about $16 less per day, according to one provider source estimate.
From the June 01, 2009 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
