Closer Look at "Vague" Sequester Report: Seniors' Medicare Funded Nursing Home Care Hardest Hit in California, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Filling in details and context to what National Journal characterized as a "vague" Office of Management and Budget (OMB) report detailing how the sequestration provision of the Budget Control Act will impact federal programs, the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care today released new Avalere data specifically delineating the impact of a 2% across-the-board cut, by state, to seniors' Medicare-funded skilled nursing facility (SNF) care. While the OMB report issued on a late Friday afternoon confirms that the overall impact would be a 2% reduction in relevant Medicare on an aggregate basis, the report lacks specificity regarding the details of the application and implementation of this reduction.

If those specifics confirm an across-the-board cut, then, according to Avalere, seniors in the following 15 states will be most negatively impacted by such SNF cuts, which will go into effect on January 1, 2013: CA $75.9 million; FL $66 million; TX $51 million; NY $47 million; IL $46.2 million; NJ $37.5 million; OH $37.3 million; PA $36.9 million; MI $30.2 million; MA $28.4 million; IN $25.1 million; NC $22.5 million; MD $18.4 million; VA $18 million; TN $17.6 million. Nationally, the sequester cuts will total $782.5 million in 2013, and total $9 billion over 10 years, according to the Avalere findings. (For sequestration cuts data for all 50 states, go to www.AQNHC.org.

"While the Sequester Transparency Act required OMB to release its report, we believe there must be maximum transparency in regard to how the sequester will negatively impact U.S. seniors in general, and seniors' Medicare-funded nursing home care in particular -- information that was not included in the late Friday afternoon report," stated Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance. "The SNF-specific data add more context and detail in regard to the sheer level and number of funding reductions facing skilled nursing providers and the rapidly aging patient population under their care."

The U.S. nursing home sector and its patients already face a $65 billion cumulative reduction in Medicare funding over the next ten years as a result of several different federal budgetary actions and regulatory changes made by Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) since 2009, according to additional Avalere data previously released by AQNHC, and the sequestration will increase this total.  

Contact: Rebecca Reid
410/212-3843

SOURCE Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care

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