Many Washington politicians are railing against healthcare costs. Nobody can say their rhetoric isn’t being heard by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
MedPAC recently called for an overhaul of Medicare’s prospective payment system within two years. The group also said operators should receive no Medicare inflationary pay increase during the next fiscal year. That “effectively translates into a cut from current payment levels, not merely a failure to increase payments to account for cost increases,” said Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.
MedPAC officials have repeatedly stated they are not directed to consider Medicaid when considering Medicare rates.
Rosenbloom pointed to an Eljay study that estimates the differential between the cost of care and what is reimbursed as exceeding $6 billion in 2011.
From the February 01, 2012 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
