Hospital-based skilled nursing care facilities say more Medi-Cal cuts will devastate patients and families. As Amy Quinton reports from Sacramento, lawmakers from both parties support a bill that would exclude those facilities from budget cuts.
A 10-percent Medi-Cal provider rate reduction is scheduled to take effect in June. It was approved by the legislature in 2011. Hospital leaders, labor unions and a bipartisan group of lawmakers say if the cuts are allowed to stand, hospital-based nursing facilities would be forced to cut staff or close. They are supporting a bill that would spare the facilities from further cuts. Daniel Ruth is CEO of Jewish Home in San Francisco.
“Since 2011 we have been dealing with substandard reimbursement rates, and facing the prospects of these cuts, trying our very best to address the challenge and bottom line, there is no way out,” says Ruth.
Supporters of the bill say in the last five years, one-third of hospital based skilled nursing facilities in California have closed because of financial problems. They say patients in these facilities require complex medical care that other providers either can’t or won’t offer.
