MedPAC recommends no market basket increase for LTC services in 2013

In a unanimous vote earlier this week, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended Congress provide no cost-of-living payment increase for skilled nursing facility services in 2013.

LTC facilities would also face a 4 percent cut in 2014 as the start of a rebasing initiative recommended by MedPAC.

In a statement Thursday, the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care decried MedPAC’s recommendations, calling them a “failure to recognize the obvious link between Medicare and Medicaid in financing SNF care.”

"With long-term and post-acute care providers across the nation beset by a barrage of federal and state budget cuts already jeopardizing seniors’ care, and causing frontline care job losses, we are alarmed by MedPAC's recommendation of no market basket increase for FY 2013,” Alliance President Alan G. Rosenbloom said in a statement.

Rosenbloom also said the proposed rebasing, when coupled with recent Medicare and Medicaid cuts, “would likely lead to substantial adverse consequences for jobs, the economy and patient care.”

Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, also said his association does not support rebasing.

“Congress can and should seriously consider the multiple changes that have already been made in the payment process in recent years,” Parkinson said in a statement. “These adjustments have unquestionably impacted our sector.

“Our centers are still adjusting, and will need more time before we can understand what these changes will mean to our overall economic health in the coming years.”

MedPAC also recommended a 0.5 percent update for hospice services.