The Daily Advertiser, April 21st, 2006
At a time when our lawmakers in Baton Rouge are under enormous pressure
to adequately fund so many critical state programs, the last thing we
needed to see from President Bush’s proposed federal budget was a
reduction in key Medicaid funding that helps ensure Louisiana’s most
vulnerable frail, elderly and disabled nursing home residents continue
to receive quality care.
Unfortunately, this is precisely what has happened.
A new analysis of the federal budget recently released by the
accounting firm BDO Seidman and the American Health Care Association
(AHCA), in Washington, D.C., finds Louisiana’s Medicaid-funded nursing
home care would be cut by an estimated $70.2 million in the year ahead.
This represents the ninth highest cut of all states analyzed. On a
per patient, per day basis – the best way to assess how this cut would
negatively impact care locally – this reduction would amount to
approximately $9.
Ongoing efforts to provide for the essential
complex care needs of our oldest, sickest, least ambulatory residents
would be severely hobbled.
