WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two of the nation's leading long term care organizations today praised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for helping to lead a successful, bipartisan effort in Congress to protect Kentucky seniors by preventing the Bush Administration from moving forward with a Medicare regulation that would have cut Medicare-funded nursing home care by $5 billion over the next five years, and $770 million in fiscal year 2009. Senator McConnell's action ensures Kentucky seniors will be protected from cuts of $12.9 million in the year ahead.
Advertisement
"The bottom-line news from yesterday's announcement that the regulation will not proceed as planned is that Medicare beneficiaries in Kentucky are the big winners, and will continue to benefit from ready access to the high quality, post-acute care they need and deserve," stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA. "Senator McConnell worked very effectively with his Congressional colleagues and the Administration to ensure Kentucky seniors' ongoing care needs will be protected."
Advertisement
Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, stated, "From a policy standpoint, this is an outstanding development in terms of both meeting seniors' changing health care needs, and doing so in a manner that uses Medicare funds most efficiently. Senator McConnell deserves enormous credit for working in an intelligent, effective, bipartisan manner to help achieve the positive results which will now benefit Kentucky's seniors."
Yarwood and Rosenbloom also noted the Bush Administration's planned Medicare cuts not only threatened Kentucky seniors' access to quality health care throughout the state, but would have also negatively impacted the local economy by threatening the jobs of key caregivers in facilities throughout the state, especially in Kentucky's rural areas.
The national long term care leaders also noted that Medicare cuts from Washington would have had a severely negative impact on the strength and viability of Kentucky's Medicaid program. Because nursing homes 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 -- it was critically important to ensure Medicare reimbursements remain steady and consistent, they said.
SOURCE American Health Care Association
