Industry stakeholders are pushing Congressional leaders to finish the job after lawmakers took their first steps toward averting three separate Medicare cuts that would reduce payments to providers by nearly 10%.
“The Medicare changes are a very good deal for long-term care providers and their residents,” Cynthia Morton, executive vice president of the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care, told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Wednesday.
The Senate could seal the deal today.
“We feel like the House really heard us that the pandemic is not the time for the cascade of cuts that would only serve to decrease access to services for Medicare beneficiaries,” she added.
Morton’s comments came after Congress reached a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling Tuesday night, which includes a proposal to give Medicare providers relief from the cuts. The Supporting Health Care Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic Act would extend a moratorium on a 2% sequester cut through the end of March and then enact a 1% cut April through June.
The measure also would delay a 4% budget-balancing cut known as PAYGO until 2023. In addition, it would provide a one-year, 3% increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule. Morton added that the fee schedule relief is “especially important.”
“CMS had made significant increases to what it pays for certain Part B services (for non-nursing home services) and nursing home residents were going to bear the brunt of the offsetting cuts to pay for those increases,” Morton said. “The 3.0% relief will offset a portion of those cuts. This is only good news and we very much need relief in the long-term care sector.”
The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living expects the Senate to vote on its own version of the measure Thursday.
“This bill would temporarily reduce or delay cuts to Medicare scheduled for 2022 that would impact skilled nursing, as well as physicians, therapists, clinical labs, portable x-ray, and other providers who administer essential services to seniors in long-term and post-acute care facilities,” Clif Porter, senior vice president of government relations for AHCA/NCAL, said in a statement Wednesday.
“These payment rate stabilization measures will help ensure continued beneficiary access to critically important healthcare services as the pandemic continues and long term care providers face an ongoing economic crisis,” he added. “However, while we appreciate the provisions in this legislation, they will only provide temporary relief.”
Porter said the association looks “forward to working with policymakers to advance permanent solutions in the coming year” once this measure is enacted.
