Nursing Homes Would See Medicare Payment Cut In Proposal
02 Maggio 2009 - 12:19AM
Dow Jones News
The federal government has proposed a 1.2% cut in payments to
nursing homes from the Medicare program as part of regulations that
would take effect this fall.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, announced
the proposed payment cut, which would amount to $390 million. The
cut takes into account a 3.3% reduction in payments based on
changes to CMS payments to skilled nursing facilities for
"medically complex" patients and a 2.1% increase to account for
inflation.
Publicly traded nursing home and home health provider companies
include Kindred Healthcare Inc. (KND), Skilled Healthcare Group
Inc. (SKH) and Sun Healthcare Group Inc. (SUNH).
The agency will accept comments on the proposed regulations
until June 30.
-By Patrick Yoest, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-3554;
patrick.yoest@dowjones.com