VA Senator John Warner Thanked for Opposing $18.2 Million Funding Cut to Stateŭs Medicare Beneficiaries

VHCA (6/20/2008)

The Virginia Health Care Association (VHCA) and the American Health Care Association (AHCA) have praised Virginia Republican Senator John Warner for advancing the growing bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to prevent the Bush Administration from moving forward with regulatory-driven cuts to seniors’ Medicare Part A nursing home funding – cuts that will result in Virginia seniors losing $18.2 million in the year ahead.

Senator Warner issued a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt which expresses his deep concern that high-quality skilled nursing care for America’s seniors will be threatened if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) moves forward with an administrative proposal that would cut $770 million in Medicare funding for skilled nursing facility (SNF) care in 2009 and more than $4 billion over the next five years.

“We thank Senator Warner for opposing these cuts because seniors’ care needs will be shortchanged and our state economy and jobs base will be damaged,” stated Steve Morrisette, President of VHCA. “The Bush Administration’s proposed Medicare cuts not only threaten Virginia seniors’ access to quality care throughout the state, but will also negatively impact our state’s economy and local employment base.”

The Warner letter to Secretary Leavitt states the following: “As you know, in 2005, CMS revised and expanded the Medicare patient classification categories - called resource utilization groups (RUGs) - which are used to set Medicare Part A daily payment rates for beneficiaries needing Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) care.  In a July 2005 statement, the agency stated, ‘The new payment plan will more accurately compensate providers for the care of medically complex patients by creating new payment categories that more closely match the kind of services being provided to them. At the same time, CMS implemented changes that encouraged the movement of certain high-acuity Medicare beneficiaries to SNFs.  As a result of these policy changes, the site of care for a significant number of high acuity patients appropriately shifted to SNFs. A recent analysis shows that this shift saved Medicare an estimated $709 million.” (Source: Avalere Health, LLC)

The letter goes on to state, “Because SNFs rely on Medicare to make up for chronic underfunding by the Medicaid program – an average of $13 per day for every Medicaid beneficiary in nursing homes nationwide – the critical relationship between these two domestic programs can not be ignored. We believe that if CMS were to finalize its proposed rule, CMS would weaken the ability of providers to care for our nation’s most vulnerable population, the frail, elderly and disabled.”

Full text of Warner Letter to HHS Secretary Leavitt available here.