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Nursing home industry wants Medicare funding restored
Posted
1-31-2000 Washington. In the wake of the third bankruptcy filing by a national skilled-nursing provider, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) warned that patient care could be in jeopardy unless the Clinton administration restores Medicare funding to the industry. Washington, D.C.-based, AHCA, which represents 12,000 nonprofit and for-profit assisted-living and skilled-nursing homes, issued the warning after Mariner Post Acute Network Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Jan. 18. Mariner joins two other national long-term care providers currently in U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Vencor Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., which filed for Chapter 11 in September, and Sun Healthcare Group Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., which filed in October. Mariner provides care to 47,400 patients in 404 skilled-nursing homes. The call for government intervention comes as the Clinton administration seeks to bolster oversight of the industry. The White House has proposed spending an additional $15.9 million on nursing home inspections, targeting facilities with less-than-adequate records of patient care. AHCA said the pattern of skilled-nursing bankruptcies should serve "as a wake-up call to government officials." Skilled-nursing care is in jeopardy due to cuts in Medicare, nursing shortages, and the cost of "frivolous litigation," according to AHCA. At greatest risk are intensive-care patients, as Medicare fails to account for the cost of additional nurses needed to aid these patients, the group said. Skilled-nursing providers have repeatedly warned President Clinton and Vice President Gore that Medicare's new payment system for skilled-nursing facilities must be fixed, according to Linda Keegan, vice president of the industry trade group. "If the administration fails to act, bankruptcies will continue, ultimately jeopardizing seniors' access to needed care."
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