Engaging 2008 Debate, Key Long Term Care Advocacy Groups Offer New Plan to Strengthen...

Engaging 2008 Debate, Key Long Term Care Advocacy Groups Offer New Plan to
Strengthen Nation's Long Term and Post-Acute Care Delivery System

Private Sector Investment, Patient-Centered Reform Cornerstone of Effort to
Create Greater Access to Elder Care

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The nation's leading long term
care organizations gathered today at the National Press Club to warn consumers
and policymakers about the severe long term care crisis and to challenge
policy makers -- especially the presidential candidates -- to embrace
restructuring long term and post-acute care as essential to effective health
care reform. The centerpiece of the press briefing, hosted by the three
advocacy organizations -- the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the
Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (the Alliance) and the National Center
for Assisted Living (NCAL) -- was the unveiling of a comprehensive plan
designed to create a consumer oriented system bringing greater private
resources into the system. The plan offers a cogent approach to a looming if
little appreciated crisis, and seeks to stimulate important discussion at a
crucial political and fiscal juncture.

"In releasing this comprehensive new plan to reform our long term and
post-acute care systems in the interest of America's seniors, we are offering
solutions that provide more comprehensive coverage, broader consumer options
and responsible use of government resources," stated Bruce Yarwood, President
and CEO of AHCA. "In addition, we also seek to generate far more debate in the
2008 election about how we can affect immediate health policy changes that can
help improve seniors' care quality today and in the years ahead. The next
President will be required to work with Congress to take bold, decisive action
to ensure seniors will have ready access to quality long term and post-acute
care, because the crisis is now upon us."

Alan Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance, said, "Overall, this incisive plan
addresses concerns about the accessibility of care for seniors today and
tomorrow. Our plan creates a sustainable, patient-centered long term and
post-acute care system that allows Americans to have more control over their
individual health care futures." The proposal in its totality, he said, would
help replace the current patchwork financing structure, increase the viability
of private long term care financing, and streamline the post-acute care and
long term care delivery systems. Implementation of our proposed plan would
help a more reliable long term and post-acute care financing system so
Americans can rest assured their future post-acute and long term health care
needs are secured without jeopardizing their retirement security.

David Kyllo, Executive Director of NCAL, stated, "The growing diversity of
long term care settings is a welcome and necessary trend that better serves
the needs and choices of aging Americans. It is incumbent on our elected
leaders as well as our profession to help drive policy that ensures care
quality is optimal across the full spectrum of care. In regard to both quality
and financing, we must view the growing multiplicity of care settings as
complementary to one another, not mutually exclusive. This plan reflects our
desire to ensure Americans' retirement years should be something to look
forward to, not to fear."

The three groups worked closely with Avalere Health, a leading advisory
company providing strategic guidance, objective analytic research, and quality
educational programs focused on the full range of healthcare issues facing our
nation. Dan Mendelson, President of Avalere Health, described the details of
the proposal during the event. His remarks underscored the imperative of
addressing our nation's long term care financing challenge, described the
current pressures facing consumers and emphasized the urgent need for long
term and post-acute care reform.

The proposal -- which emphasizes better coordination of both care and
financing, greater private sector involvement and appropriate personal
responsibility -- will allow consumers to better plan for their long term care
needs, which will afford them better and broader choices. In addition, the
plan will allow both federal and state lawmakers to seize control of eldercare
financing issues. The plan also offers clear solutions to the nation's
Governors by dramatically restructuring the Medicaid program, which currently
finances the lion's share of long term care in America. Medicaid, established
in 1965, remains a literal lifeline for the nation's less fortunate elderly,
and must be reformed in a way that ensures consistent care and services, as
well as their financing, and that relieves the pressures on state government
to devote ever greater resources to pay for care. The alternative -- the
inevitable collapse of the system under the growing weight of its outdated
financing structure -- simply is unacceptable. This plan will reorganize the
Medicaid long term care and Medicare post-acute care systems by centralizing
and streamlining government services and making more private resources
available to pay for care, which will benefit the consumer, provider and
taxpayer alike.

Highlights of the proposal, available in more detail at www.ahca.org and
www.aqnhc.org, are as follows:

A Streamlined Long Term Care System Enhancing Consumer Choice
The proposal will infuse private resources into the entire spectrum of long
term care services, ensure a viable care system for the future that covers
care provided at home and in a full array of care settings, optimize choice in
the type and site of care received, and federalize the system to minimize
state-by-state and regional differences in the long term care benefit
available to all Americans. The plan will also establish new financial
products -- including improved reverse mortgages, federally-endorsed long term
care (LTC) insurance products, and new LTC savings accounts -- which
individuals are incentivized to purchase in order to cover future LTC costs.

New Medicare Post-Acute Payment System Featuring Updated Patient Assessment
Tools
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement a new
Medicare post-acute payment system based on the condition, needs and
characteristics of the patient, regardless of the site where care is
delivered, thus further encouraging and enhancing consumer choice. A
post-acute patient assessment tool will replace the existing site-specific
model and will assist in determining patient placement, care plan development,
continued stay and discharge decision-making, development of quality
indicators, and payment calculation. The new Medicare payment model and
patient assessment will replace the current system for which each site of care
has its own reimbursement system determined by varying types of patient
classifications. The three long term care leaders noted and praised the fact
CMS has already initiated a multi-state pilot program evaluating the care
Medicare beneficiaries receive after being discharged from a hospital, and how
the federal government pays for that care. Currently, they noted, Medicare
pays for beneficiaries' care based on where the beneficiary receives health
care services, not the nature of the care itself.

Yarwood, Rosenbloom and Kyllo also praised the work and recommendations of the
recently-concluded National Commission for Quality Long Term Care (NCQLTC)
headed by former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich (R-GA), and noted one of its key findings provides a strong rationale
for the consumer education component of the plan released today.

An NCQLTC survey found 34% of Americans believe most long term care is paid
for by Medicare, 20% believe most long term care is paid for by Medicaid (in
fact the largest source of funding, accounting for 49% of long term care
spending in 2004), and 22% believe individuals and their families pay for most
long term care. 13% said they do not know how long term care is financed under
the current system.

"The results of the poll from the Kerrey-Gingrich panel are all the more
reason the 2008 presidential aspirants of both parties owe it to the nation to
discuss these issues, and to raise public awareness of the fact individuals
must become far more involved in how they will help finance and take control
of their own long term care needs," Yarwood concluded.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted
Living (NCAL) represents nearly 11,000 non-profit and proprietary facilities
dedicated to continuous improvement in the delivery of professional and
compassionate care provided daily by millions of caring employees to 1.5
million of our nation's frail, elderly and disabled citizens who live in
nursing facilities, assisted living residences, subacute centers and homes for
persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more
information, please visit www.ahca.org.

The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care ("The Alliance") is a coalition of
16 national long term care provider organizations that care for approximately
300,000 elderly and disabled patients each year in nearly 1,800 facilities
across America. The Alliance is dedicated to improving the quality of nursing
home care in the United States through measured results and outcomes and to
assuring the government resources necessary to provide high quality care and
services.

SOURCE American Health Care Association

Susan Feeney of AHCA, +1-202-898-6333; or Debra DeShong Reed of Alliance for
Quality Nursing Home Care, +1-202-528-4214