FLORIDA LEGISLATORS MUST KEEP THEIR PROMISE TO SUPPORT ...

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1459, Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1459

Phone: (850) 224-3907 Fax: (850) 681-2075

FLORIDA LEGISLATORS MUST KEEP THEIR PROMISE TO SUPPORT QUALITY NURSING HOME CARE

Florida legislators approved landmark elder care reform legislation in 2001 that mandated increased minimum staffing requirements, tougher regulation and quality improvement and risk management programs. Nursing home quality has since steadily improved. Now, Medicaid funding cuts threaten the frail elderly who have nowhere else to go.

FUNDING REQUEST

No unfunded mandates: Restore the $75 million in funding cut January 1, 2008 so that Florida's nursing homes can pay for the additional nurses and CNA staff the law now requires.

Fully fund nursing homes' ability to pay increased costs due to inflation and increasing vendor costs.

THE CASE FOR ADEQUATE FUNDING

Today, Florida's nursing home staffing standards are the highest in the nation. The Florida legislature has funded these required staffing increases, but the new Medicaid rates effective January 1, 2008 cut funding an annualized $75 million, which wipes out the funding received for the January 1, 2007 mandatory nurse and CNA staffing increases (from 2.6 to 2.9 CNA hours of patient care per day).

Nursing homes lose an average of $12.24 per day to care for a Medicaid patient. The cost to care for a Medicaid patient exceeds the reimbursement rate for 92% of all nursing homes.

Two-thirds of nursing homes' costs are for people ? salaries and benefits. When nursing home funding is cut, people are cut. There are fewer hands to do the many important jobs in a nursing home. Individual workloads increase, which contributes to increased turnover.

As a result of the 2001 legislation, fully 87 percent of the Florida nursing home patients and 84 percent of their families now describe their nursing home as "excellent" or "good." The Office of the State Long Term Care Ombudsman reports fewer and fewer nursing home complaints received and investigated over the past several years. Care has improved because funding has improved.

Gov. Crist has proposed eliminating $192 million in inflation-related increases for 2008-09. The last time funding was cut this drastically, about a fourth of the nursing homes in Florida filed for bankruptcy and about two dozen closed their doors for good, sending their frail elderly patients elsewhere.

At the federal level, Congress is contemplating cuts in both Medicare and Medicaid funding. These cuts threaten all the quality improvement gains at the very time they are needed most.

Money is tight in Florida, but legislators ought not to balance the budget on the backs of frail, elderly people. Give facilities the resources they need to do their critically important work.

Street Address: 307 West Park Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida 32301-1427

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