To Caution Congress on How Pending Medicare Cuts in Current Health Reform Bills Represent Severe Threat to Nation's Nursing Home Patients, Workforce and Local Economies

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new national coalition of small long-term care businesses that provide vital services to the nation's skilled nursing facilities, will join with Maine nursing home providers and frontline caregivers for a Capitol Hill press conference to caution against deep Medicare cuts included in current healthcare reform legislation. With pending health reform legislation in the U.S. Congress containing cuts of up to $32 billion over ten years to Medicare-funded nursing home care, the organizations will detail the specific threat to seniors' care, state health care providers, and local businesses and jobs throughout the U.S. as facility closures and bankruptcy protections continue to take place across the country.

The Community Cares Coalition (CoCares), the Maine Health Care Association (MEHCA) and the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA), will outline how massive Medicare cuts are especially alarming in the context of broader state and national economic problems -- state Medicaid budget crises in particular -- and explain how lawmakers can help fix the problems as health care reform enters a critical stage.

    WHO:        Rick Erb, Executive Director of Maine Health Care Association
                Lisa Cantrell, National Co-Chair of National Association of
                 Health Care Assistants
                Tom Norton, Owner, Lee Agency Insurance Muscatine, Iowa
                Community Cares Coalition

    WHEN:       Wednesday, October 28, 2009
                10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
                122 Cannon House Office Building

BACKGROUND:

The Medicare funding reductions not only represent a direct, immediate threat to seniors' care and the jobs of local caregivers - but would come at a time when the Obama Administration just imposed a regulatory cut to Medicare-financed nursing home care of up to $16 billion nationally. These cuts were put into effect by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on October 1, 2009.

A central focus of the policy discussion surrounds the contention from supporters of the Medicare cuts that seniors' care will not, in fact, be negatively impacted. This ignores the central fact that because a full 70 percent of nursing home operating costs is labor-related, the cuts will cause a major disruption to facilities' economic stability and engender significant caregiver job losses. But the impact of Medicare cuts will go beyond the four walls of the nursing facility to the detriment of long term care small businesses that provide employment and contribute to a local jobs base, particularly in rural regions of the country. The organizations will point out that local economic conditions are directly tied to the fate of facilities themselves - many of which are being forced to close their doors in states across the nation.

SOURCE Community Cares Coalition