Nursing Home Caregivers, Providers, Small Business Leaders Warn Deep Medicare Cuts Will Threaten Seniors' Care, Destabilize Staffing, Hurt Local Economies and...( Maine Senators Olympia Snowe Susan C...),Health

Maine Senators Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins Credited With Drawing Needed Attention to Multiple Threats Facing Seniors, Caregivers, Local Communities

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Community Cares Coalition:

With pending health reform legislation in the U.S. Congress containing cuts of up to $32 billion over ten years to Medicare-funded nursing home care, a diverse national coalition of front line caregivers, state health care providers and local small business owners joined together at a Capitol Hill news conference to warn deep cuts must be reigned in to safeguard the care of America's most vulnerable seniors, preserve the jobs of the key frontline caregivers who make the difference in patient outcomes, and protect the ongoing viability of local small businesses oriented towards serving the long term care sector.

"The very deep Medicare funding reductions like those now being considered by Congress represent a direct, immediate threat to every U.S. seniors' nursing home care, and to the ongoing operational stability of skilled nursing facilities throughout the nation," warned Rick Erb, Executive Director of the Maine Health Care Association (MHCA), in Augusta, ME. "We are thankful Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have recently focused much-needed attention on the unique challenges our sector faces as we battle not just Medicare cuts from Washington, but state Medicaid funding crises in state capitols across America."

Erb also pointed out these new, deep funding cuts would come at a time when the Obama Administration just imposed a regulatory cut to Medicare-financed nursing home care of up to $16 billion nationally. These cuts were put into effect by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on October 1, 2009.

Lisa Cantrell, National Co-Chair of the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA), based in Jop
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