Mike Cheek

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in December called for the elimination of market basket updates for skilled nursing operators in fiscal 2018 and 2019.

MedPAC commissioners said that a relatively unchanged industry should be given no inflationary payment upticks, and have its reimbursement system revised. 

Mike Cheek, senior vice president of finance policy & legal affairs at the American Health Care Association, told McKnight’s his group is concerned about MedPAC’s focus on fee-for-service margins. He also noted that this year’s recommendations were “more strident” than past years’. 

A vote on the recommendations is slated for January.