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Passionate Testimony Sways Legislators
Article by Dave Ranney and appeard March 9, 2010
TOPEKA — Jeff Moszeter runs the Eventide Convalescent Center here. He’s dreading the possibility of having to tell his 74 residents they’ll have to find somewhere else to live.
They might have to, he said, because 54 of them are on Medicaid, which doesn’t pay enough to cover the nursing home’s costs. Instead, its private-pay residents make up the difference.
But now that revenue shortfalls have caused the state to cut its Medicaid reimbursement by 10 percent, Moszeter says he’s trapped. His private-pay residents say they’re tapped out.
If he raises their rates anyway, they’ll soon be eligible for Medicaid, too, making matters worse.
Moszeter testified Tuesday before the 23-member House Appropriations Committee.
“I’m asking every one of you for help,” he said, voice cracking with emotion.
Between January and July, the Medicaid cut is expected to cost Eventide Convalescent Center $113,000.
Moszeter said he was all for House Bill 2673, which would use a $1,325-per-year tax on licensed nursing home beds to generate about $30 million which, in turn, would be used to draw down $56 million in additional federal Medicaid funding.
Ninety-nine percent of the $86 million would be returned to the nursing homes – the more Medicaid residents a home has, the more money it would receive.
Eventide Convalescent Center would probably receive an additional $200,600.
The bill’s supporters say it is needed to keep for-profit nursing homes like Eventide Convalescent Center solvent.
But the state’s nonprofit nursing homes – especially those with few Medicaid residents - oppose the bill, saying it’s an unjust tax on private-pay residents, most of whom have scrimped and saved to avoid being on welfare.
Andy Huckaba, is chairman of the board at Lakeview Village, Lenexa, the largest retirement community in the state. Of 120 beds at Lakeview, he said, only “five to nine” are set aside for Medicaid residents.
Huckaba said the tax would cost Lakeview Village $191,000 and would have to come out of Lakeview Village’s bottom line because its residents pay a one-time “entry fee,” which, contractually, cannot be raised.
“We don’t have a mechanism for paying the tax,” he said.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, argued that most nursing homes would come out ahead.
“Less than 7 percent of the homes will be affected negatively; 93 percent will be affected positively,” he said.
Bethell said 36 states have similar assessments in place.
“It makes no sense for us to be telling nursing homes to raise their private-pay rates to make up for the 10 percent cut in Medicaid and then at the same time leave $56 million in federal money on the table because we don’t want to raise private pay rates,” Bethell told KHI News Service.
The committee heard from nine conferees Tuesday. It expects to hear from nine more Wednesday.
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