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Skilled nursing providers Wednesday requested that Congress reject the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) recommendations regarding Medicare funding to facilities.

MedPAC in January recommended against providing an inflation adjustment in Medicare funding for SNF care in 2007. Not including an inflation adjustment would harm the quality of care in nursing homes, providers believe.

Stephen Guillard of HCR Manor Care, and past chairman of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, called the recommendations “ill-advised” and said they “will contribute to the deterioration of the long-term care system.”

Providers also asked Congress to amend MedPAC’s charter. Providers are requesting that the charter require MedPAC to consider operating margins of all government payers and the adequacy of all government funding in making its recommendations. Providers say it is unfair to consider only Medicare payments without also taking into account low Medicaid rates, which must are, in effect, subsidized by Medicare dollars.