Medicaid: Nursing homes underpaid
Oct 29, 2008
South Florida Sun-Sentinel–October 29, 2008
Bob LaMendola
Florida’s Medicaid program underpaid nursing homes by $214 million in 2006 and will fall short by a like amount this year as a result of an ongoing, national funding gap, according to a report released Tuesday.
States pay nursing homes based on “allowable costs” such as food, nurses and personal care, but the rates paid in Florida and nationally covered only 92 percent of the costs in 2006, the report by the Florida Health Care Association, an industry trade group, said.
Medicaid pays for about two-thirds of nursing home stays in Florida. A spokeswoman said the industry wants Florida to restore Medicaid cuts of the past two years, and is asking Congress to send money from the economic rescue plan to nursing homes.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs state Medicaid, is still studying the report and had no comment, a spokesman said.