As lawmakers decide what to do about the physician payment cuts scheduled to take place in March, the nursing home industry is seeking to remove the bulls-eye from its own back.
Future physician cuts are already affecting nursing home laws.
The trouble starts from something called the “SGR”. That stands for “sustainable growth rate.” It was part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It utilized a series of triggers that would theoretically curb health care spending.
Here’s the rub: One by one, all of those triggers were repealed except for physician pay. So now, in order to be in accordance with the current form of the law, physician reimbursement by Medicaid and Medicare is going to be cut by almost 30%.
Even in Congress, no one wants to think about their doctor being disgruntled. Disgruntled nursing home employees, on the other hand… well?
Congress has been kicking this can down the road for years, but the current political climate demands more than just the status quo, and that has many running for cover.
As a preemptive strike, the American Health Care Association, a nursing home advocacy group, is proposing an idea that would save billions by preventing the readmission of nursing home residents from the hospital.
If the nursing homes fail to deliver the proposed savings, the nursing homes would make up the difference. It’s a bold plan that has nursing homes guaranteeing a tremendous increase in care for no additional cost.
It makes you wonder: if it were so easy to save billions in care, why wouldn’t they have already done so?
Nursing home abuse and neglect are rampant in the United States and around the world. There’s no easy solution to the problems that nursing home residents and their families face.
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