Mike Cheek
AHCA’s Mike Cheek

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in December called for the elimination of market basket updates for skilled nursing operators in fiscal 2018 and 2019.

MedPAC commissioners said that a relatively unchanged industry should be given no inflationary payment upticks, and have its reimbursement system revised. 

Mike Cheek, senior vice president of finance policy & legal affairs at the American Health Care Association, told McKnight’s his group is concerned about MedPAC’s focus on fee-for-service margins. He also noted that this year’s recommendations were “more strident” than past years’. 

A vote on the recommendations is slated for January.