Are Medicare Cuts Going to Make it More Difficult for us to Help Seniors?

[Paula Camposano-Robinson, RN]

MedPAC recommendations include payment freeze for SNFs, IRFs

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission yesterday recommended freezing Medicare payments for skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and home health agencies in 2010. MedPAC also recommended providing long-term care hospitals with a full market basket update minus an adjustment for productivity growth, for an estimated update of 1.6%. In addition, commissioners said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should accelerate a 2.71% coding reduction planned for home health agencies in 2011, which was contained in the 2008 home health prospective payment system final rule. The rule reduced case mix payments in 2008 through 2011 to account for a change in coding behavior that occurred from 2000 to 2005. Accelerating the 2011 coding reduction would result in a 5.5% payment reduction for home health agencies in 2010. Commissioners also recommended that CMS rebase home health agency payment rates for 2011 to reflect the average cost of providing care. AHA Senior Associate Director for Policy Rochelle Archuleta said, “We believe the current economic environment calls for a full market basket update for IRFs, LTCHs and hospital-based SNFs.”

[Paula Camposano-Robinson, RN]

I'm anxious to see how President Obama will be handling healthcare reform. This is will be crucial for all of us serving seniors. Even if you are on the private pay side, money is tight for most families, or they are not willing to risk spending it, even if they need to, for fear of what is going to happen next with the economy.

[Griswold]

Thanks for sharing this article. While this may not directly affect us, we still need to keep informed about the overall care home and health care environment.