Tell Your U.S. Representative to Oppose SNF Payment Cuts

VHCA (6/12/2009)

Ask Your U.S. Representative to Sign on to the Berkley-Capito-Pomeroy Dear Colleague Letter
 
VHCA, along with AHCA/NCAL, requests that you contact your Member of Congress to oppose the $18 billion in SNF Medicare cuts recently proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Your U.S. Representative can demonstrate opposition by signing on to the Berkley-Capito-Pomeroy "Dear Colleague" letter, which urges Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CMS to reconsider these ill-advised cuts.

Click here to take action to send a letter today.

Health care providers must forcefully oppose the approximately $18 billion in cuts to Medicare reimbursement for skilled nursing care proposed by CMS in its recently issued Fiscal Year 2010 Notice of Proposed Rule Making. CMS seeks these funds to make up for its own projection error related to the 2006 implementation of revisions to the SNF patient classification system (RUG-III.)

This ill-timed administrative tactic will slash Medicare funding for skilled nursing facility (SNF) care by $1.05 billion in FY 2010 alone, rising to $7.23 billion over five years, and totaling $18 billion over ten years.

Implementation of this Medicare regulation will eliminate at least 30,000 good health care jobs, undermine economic stimulus initiatives, and derail badly-needed delivery system reforms already helping beneficiaries and taxpayers. Further, these cuts will cause an annual $2.5 billion reduction in business activity, and force the loss of $1.1 billion in labor income nationwide.

Therefore, health care providers must urge the Administration and Congress to avoid adopting short-term, budget-driven policies that are inconsistent with the goal of improving post-acute care coordination and payment efficiency.

The deadline is June 22nd so please ask your U.S. Representative to sign on to the letter ASAP.  To see how the economic impact of these cuts will affect Virginia click here.

For more information, click here to view the AHCA issue brief.

To view a copy of the Dear Colleague letter, click here.