Leaders of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care have said they are alarmed over aspects of the Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) payment rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last Thursday.
Alliance leaders said the proposal could result in funding reductions as high as $4 billion to seniors' Medicare-funded skilled nursing care.
The organization said it is important that CMS "gets it right" while fine-tuning the Medicare SNF payment system to protect seniors' care quality, preserve caregivers' jobs, and ensure accountability to U.S. taxpayers.
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According to the Alliance, the proposed rule outlines two approaches to correcting the Medicare payment system for skilled nursing care. One would impose immediate and deep funding reductions of more than 11 percent on SNFs. The other would ensure any system-wide correction is based on meaningful data, analysis and thoughtful, collaborative review.
"We are deeply concerned about a proposal that would impose immediate and deep payment reductions of more than 11 percent based on limited data from the new Medicare SNF payment system," said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance.
"However, we agree that it is critical to achieve an appropriate level of Medicare funding for SNF care, and we believe that can and should be done while also maintaining quality and stability within the SNF care system," Rosenbloom said.
Rosenbloom also stressed the need to "address this issue in the context of other issues affecting SNF care- giving before taking precipitous action." He pointed to key factors, such as rising patient acuity, shrinking length of stay, escalating costs, and plummeting state Medicaid funding as an important context for decision-making on Medicare funding issues.
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