Friday, August 29, 2008

Nursing Home Industry To Receive $1.5 Billion Overpayment In 2009, USA

Yielding to intense lobbying by the nursing home industry, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is giving skilled nursing facilities
(SNFs), nursing homes that provide nursing and rehabilitative services to
Medicare beneficiaries recovering from a hospital stay, a two-part rate increase
worth more than $1.5 billion next year.

"The windfall to skilled nursing
facilities comes with no strings attached; there is no reason to believe this
windfall will help improve the quality of care or quality of life for nursing
home residents," said Toby S. Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney with the Center
for Medicare Advocacy.

"The Center for Medicare Advocacy calls on CMS to
recalibrate skilled nursing facilities rates, as it proposed in May, and to take
steps to ensure that skilled nursing facilities use their Medicare dollars as
Congress and CMS intended - for the care of skilled nursing facilities
residents," said Ms. Edelman. "CMS bases skilled nursing facilities rates, in
part, on costs for nurse staffing. The highest daily rate for an urban skilled
nursing facility, $622.93, includes $288.31 for nursing. CMS must ensure that
skilled nursing facilities actually spend their staffing dollars on staff."

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