Long Term Care Reps Say State Budget Cuts to Medicaid Will Threaten Quality and Reform

ALBANY, NY (01/17/2008)(readMedia)-- As the 2008 state budget process begins, New York’s leaders need to keep in mind the consequences for seniors of budgets past, say leaders of the association representing New York’s not-for-profit and public providers of long term care services. According to a new report from the New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging, annual Medicaid cuts to nursing homes and home care have put the state’s long term care system in jeopardy and the seniors it serves at risk of less access and lower quality of life.

Among the findings of the new NYAHSA report “Nursing Home Funding Cuts: A Threat to Quality and Long Term Care Reform” are:

• The 2007-08 state budget cut Medicaid nursing home funding by $114 million;
• One in 10 nursing homes is seriously considering closure due to the 2007-08 cuts;
• Nearly a third of the homes surveyed delayed filling vacant direct resident care staff positions, and 23 percent had to cut direct care staff positions due to the 2007-08 cuts;
• An estimated 2,700 certified nurse aides may have lost their jobs as a result of the 2007-08 cuts;
• “Culture change” plans—which promote resident-centered care—are being delayed or cancelled due to Medicaid cuts;
• Due to the 2007-08 cuts, 17 percent of homes are cutting back plans to make alternative services, such as home care, available; and
• Additional Medicaid cuts would lead to more staffing and other cuts, affecting access to quality care and interfering with efforts to create a more person-centered system.

“At a time when 6 million New Yorkers of the Baby Boom generation are poised to begin aging into the system, and consumers are seeking greater access to health care when, how and where they want it, now is not the time to make cuts that impact the elderly and disabled consumers who rely on the state’s long term health care system,” said Carl S. Young, president of NYAHSA. “Providers understand that the state is dealing with a large deficit, but sacrificing the needs of seniors is not the best strategy to accomplish the goal of fiscal stability.”

“New York made great strides towards a more flexible health care system when it approved changes to the state’s nursing home reimbursement methodology back in 2006,” said Carl S. Young. “Part of that commitment was to stabilize nursing homes’ finances to enable them to transition to other forms of care, such as home care and assisted living. Our seniors deserve these options, taxpayers deserve the long term savings that reform can provide, and our members are ready to work with the state to effect that change.”

Copies of the NYAHSA report “Nursing Home Funding Cuts: A Threat to Quality and Long Term Care Reform” are available by visiting the association’s Web site at www.nyahsa.org.

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Founded in 1961, the New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging is the only statewide organization representing the entire continuum of not-for-profit and public continuing care providers, including senior housing, assisted living, adult care facilities, retirement communities, home care agencies, adult day health care programs, managed long term care plans and nursing homes.