Minnesota Caregivers Fight Against Proposed Bush Medicare Cuts

Medicare cuts proposed by the Bush administration would be most damaging to rural providers and caregivers, prompting caregivers and providers in Minnesota to fight back this week. Minnesota’s rural nursing homes would lose $11.57 per patient day – or $3.7 million annually – under the administration proposal, according to the American Health Care Association (AHCA).

AHCA data shows that the proposed regulatory action, introduced May 1 to correct a “forecasting error,” would slash $133 million nationally in Medicare Part A funding for rural seniors during the next fiscal year. This comes at a time when rising energy, food and labor costs combine to hit rural providers particularly hard, threatening care for rural seniors and endangering the jobs and employment bases of rural communities.

Besides Minnesota, other rural states that would take the biggest hits – based upon loss of per-patient-day cuts – include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois and Texas.

With a decision on these proposed Medicare cuts to be determined within the next several weeks, long term care advocates in Minnesota are urging their federal lawmakers to ensure that these cuts that would hurt seniors and the facilities which care for them are not an option.

“We plan on ensuring federal lawmakers are acutely aware how spiraling costs, in conjunction with these proposed Medicare cuts, will undermine nursing homes on an operational basis, and jeopardize seniors’ care needs on a clinical level,” said Alan Rosenbloom of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. “On virtually every front, America’s skilled nursing facilities are facing budget cuts and cost increases, and it is time to sound the alarm.”