Avalere Health Finds New Plan to Reform Medicare Post-Acute and Long Term Care System Could Save U.S. Approximately $35 Billion Over...( AHCA/NCAL/Alliance Implo...),Health

AHCA/NCAL/Alliance Implore President, Congress to Include Plan in Broader Health Reform Discussion

WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Saying the opportunity now exists for the Obama Administration and Congress to both enhance U.S. seniors' care choices as well as save approximately $35 billion over ten years by adopting a new Medicare post-acute and long term care reform plan, the nation's leading long term care advocacy organizations today warned any broad-based reform of the nation's health care system in the months ahead will be incomplete without including long term and post-acute care.

Earlier today, Avalere Health announced it had scored the new reform proposal developed by the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL), and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care "using Congressional Budget Office-style methods and assumptions." Anne Tumlinson, a vice president at Avalere Health and lead author of the firm's new report, said, "The health reform goals debated today - achieving greater efficiency and value for the healthcare dollar, adding discipline to Medicare spending, and better use of evidence to improve patient experience - are inextricably tied to improving long-term and post-acute care in the U.S. Any meaningful reform effort will involve a careful analysis of choices, policy options, and trade-offs."

Reforming the Medicare post-acute payment system, she said, would generate $81 billion in savings over 10 years of operation. Those savings would offset the costs of launching a new federal LTC program, which by Avalere estimates, would cost $46 billion over 10 years to create. The total 10-year program savings is $35 billion. A full set of assumptions and methods is published in the report, entitled, "Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Reform/Estimating the Federal Budgetary Effects of the AHCA/NC
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