Federal Government Shutdown Growing Threat for Care Centers

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Jodi Boyne

In an interview with McKnight’s Long-Term Care News last week, LeadingAge national said that a growing threat of slightly smaller reimbursements for skilled nursing looms as the federal shutdown continues. 

Barbara Gay, Vice President of Public Policy Communications at LeadingAge, noted that in failing to finalize a spending bill for fiscal 2019, Congress and President Trump have left spending caps in place. The caps call for total federal spending to be ratcheted down to levels most legislators or the White House can actually support – therefore, over the past several years, Congress has waived those caps.

“Without a spending bill containing a waiver, the caps could trigger spending sequestration across all government programs,” said Gay, noting that Medicare reimbursement, which is already subject to 2 percent sequestration, would get an added cut of about 0.1 percent if a spending bill with a budget caps waiver doesn’t become law by end of January. 

To read more, see SNF Advocates See Growing Threat If Shutdown Doesn’t End Soon.