National Long Term Care Leaders Praise Overall Baucus Health Reform Effort, Express...

National Long Term Care Leaders Praise Overall Baucus Health Reform Effort,
Express Specific Concerns Moving Forward

WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a joint
statement from Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of the American Health Care
Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), and Alan G.
Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care:

We commend Senators Baucus and Grassley for pursuing a thoughtful,
deliberative, inclusive approach to the sweeping health care policy reforms
that will impact every American senior for decades to come. The Senate Finance
Committee's new "Policy Options" document proposes a variety of important
initiatives that better orient our nation's health care system toward more
effective care coordination and better alignment of payment incentives and
quality outcomes. The infrastructure investments necessary to achieve these
goals are provided, and this is a laudable achievement.

Many of the options concerning post-acute care like those related to
value-based purchasing and innovative chronic care management, and
transitional care activities, for example, would complement and sustain
ongoing government and profession-wide quality improvement efforts now making
a positive difference in the lives of seniors. However, we are concerned that
while "post-acute bundling" certainly deserves serious consideration, it
nonetheless represents a substantial policy change that has yet to be
adequately tested.

Absent further development, we believe a commitment to system-wide
implementation could lead to unintended and unwelcome consequences for elderly
beneficiaries, front line care staff, and the entire post-acute and long-term
care sector. We believe a more cautious approach to post-acute reform that
evaluates options in addition to bundling - like site-neutral post-acute
payments - may be a better approach to rationalizing the coordination of acute
and post-acute services, and the coordination of care across these settings.

We also are encouraged the new policy document includes nursing home
transparency provisions that, overall, offer a sound approach to assuring
providers report more meaningful information to the government, and that
useful information is made available publicly. We support greater transparency
and accountability, but several provisions in the options document may merit
modification upon further review.

Moving forward, we urge the Committee to consider the need to address not only
rationalization of the post-acute system but also reform of the long-term care
delivery system. Now is the time to recognize and act upon the fact that
patients, especially older Americans, have both chronic and intermittent
health care needs. The options paper begins to address chronic care needs and
care coordination, but remains incomplete until it also encompasses reform of
the long term care system.

We look forward to working with Senators Baucus and Grassley, the other
members of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee to refine these options into a comprehensive
health care reform proposal that earns the strong support of Congress,
President Obama, and the American people.

SOURCE American Health Care Association

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