Budget raid could shut down nursing homes - bizjournals:

savimy.blogspot.com
“The state is moving federal funds allocatex for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment Syste m and Medicaid to thegenerak fund,” said Kathleen Collins Pagels, executivd director of the . “There is a loophole in the federa stimulus legislation that does not require statesw to use Medicaid funding forMedicaid purposes.” That loopholew will put the state’s most frail elderly residents at risk, as nursing homes alreadyy are hurting from low Medicaid she said. Arizona’s legislators are consideringb cutting payments by 5 percent to health plans that contract with the state’s Medicaid program, which generallyy pays less than private insurers. Gov.
Jan Brewer’s budget proposap doesn’t include any cuts to insurance providers; instead, it calls for saleas and property tax increases togenerates revenue. When nursing homes receive less reimbursementfrom AHCCCS, it impactxs their ability to provide qualitu care to patients and maintain a skillecd work force, she said. Jay Shetler, presidentg and CEO of , said the majority of the Glendale senio rliving campus’s funding comes from AHCCCS’ long-term care insurancwe program.
“We’ve been told by AHCCCS officials that if thei r agency is cut by 5 we — as providers of actua l services to seniors in nursing homes and assisted-livinh settings — can expect a 10 percengt decrease in reimbursement,” Shetler said. That woul d mean a $900,000 hit to Glencroft’z bottom line. “It would force us to do layoffs,” he adding he will know within a week exactlyt how many employees his facilitywould Meanwhile, he has mobilized about 400 employees and nursingy home residents to write letters to thei r legislators, including Arizona Rep. John Nelson, R-Glendale, to plead for no cuts in funding.
“We’re not sure we can make that kind ofdrastidc across-the-board cuts and still serve at the same levep of care,” he said. Arizona Rep. Nancy R-Phoenix, chairwoman of the House Healthu and HumanServices Committee, does not supporf the proposal to cut AHCCCS payments. “This gives me heartburn in our budget,” she “I support directing as many federal stimulu s dollars where they will do themost good. That meanzs not diverting them froma three-to-one which is what we’re talking about here.” For every dollarr the state contributes to AHCCCS, the federap government pitches in $3.
If the state opts to diverft stimulus funds from AHCCCS to the general the matchbecomes less. Cuts to AHCCCaS insurance providers have a dominio effecton businesses, passing on a hidden tax to employers and employees, Barto said. “It’s a stealthn tax on private insurers,” she said. “Ifr we’re going to do that, we might as well be up frontf andsay we’re going to raise taxes.” Here’s anotherd domino effect: When AHCCCS funding is cut, insurance companies pass highefr premiums on to employers, who then pass along thosre increased costs to employees, she said.
“Wer need to take advantage of the federak dollars where they will do themost good,” Barto Arizona Sen. Ken Cheuv­ront, D-Phoenix, ranking member of the Senate Financw Committee, said he would not support Republican-backed budge cuts to AHCCCS.