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Shortfalls In Health Care

Decent Essays

The underlying issue is the financial challenges and lack of resources SNF’s face, in a growing elder population, that results in razor-thin operating margins from a series of cuts over the last five years, a gap between care people receive and the care they deserve and further reductions to the profession that threaten access to health care in rural areas (AHCA, 2016). In 2012, MedPAC estimated the overall operating margins of SNF’s at 1.8 percent reflecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Private Pay sources of funding operating at negative levels (AHCA, & NCAL, 2016). In addition, AHCA estimated on any given day, 78 percent of residents receiving care in an SNF depend on Medicare or Medicaid to pay for their care (2016). Furthermore, an estimated …show more content…

The Federal Government matches Medicaid dollars,however on the low end it’s merely 50 percent of costs and on the high end up to 65 percent of costs (Eljay, LLC., & Hansen Hunter & Company, PC., 2016). A Report on Shortfalls in Medicaid Funding for Nursing Center Care estimated the shortfall in 2015 for Medicaid payments was 11.8 percent, an estimated net margin(shortfall) of $7.02 billion dollars (2016). In prior years Medicaid shortfall estimated; $6 billion in 2010, $7 billion in 2011, $7 billion in 2012, and $7.7 billion in 2013; resulting in an estimated shortfall of $34.72 billion from 2010-2015 (excluding 2014 data, info not available) (AHCA, 2016).
Next, are the Medicare cuts that have taken place over the last 5 years, 2010-2015. The overall estimated cuts from Medicare include the following types of cuts; Affordable Care Act Productivity Adjustment, Sequestration, Bad Debt, Therapy MPPR Cuts, Regulatory Changes(Forecast Error Cut), and Regulatory Changes(Payment Formula Changes) combined equal an estimated Medicare cut of $27.35 billion (AHCA,

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