Don't hurt nursing home care in cuts

 Written byDes Moines Register
The federal government is fixing a mistake it made last year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is reducing payments to nursing homes by 11.1 percent to correct for "an unintended spike in payments."
The news was met with complaints from the industry that quality of care will suffer. It was also met with complaints from Wall Street. Stock prices of large nursing home operators plummeted. In other words, nursing homes may not make stockholders as much money now.The places caring for elderly and disabled people - and relying heavily on government payments to do so - should not be viewed as profit centers in the first place.
A report from the Government Accountability Office last year found private investment firms have been buying nursing homes the past several years - resulting in a lack of transparency that make it impossible to know who is ultimately responsible for a home. Just as troubling was why they were buying homes: They are a "reliable investment streams," according to government investigators.
How can these places be such reliable money-makers when they pay the staff providing care so little? When there are too few employees, which contributes to complaints of neglect? When lobbyists repeatedly say they need higher payments from Medicare and Medicaid?
Cuts in government reimbursements do not have to automatically harm the care residents receive. Homes can reprioritize how they spend money. They can choose to hire more direct-care workers, buy medical equipment for residents' use and plant flowers for residents and their families to enjoy. Though this thinking should apply to the two-thirds of nursing homes in this country that are for-profits, it should also apply to nonprofit owners.
Government, the largest and most reliable payer for care, has been paying some of these places too much. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says the recently announced reduction in rates will "better align Medicare payments with costs."
That refers to the cost of caring for vulnerable people.