By any affordable normal, President Trump’s nominee to guide the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies seems as much as the job. (Which, by the way in which, is greater than be stated for the brand new boss on the Division of Well being and Human Companies.)
Throughout a largely pleasant nomination listening to final week, Mehmet Oz, MD, promised that if confirmed, he’ll “work tirelessly to make sure CMS supplies Individuals entry to excellent care, particularly to those that want it essentially the most: our younger, disabled and aged.” In different phrases, he stated all the fitting issues.
However there was no avoiding the proverbial elephant within the room: proposed cuts to Medicaid-program funding. Such reductions, ought to they attain senior residing (and it’s arduous to consider they received’t), would undoubtedly have a devastating impact on hundreds of senior residing operators — and the a whole bunch of hundreds of residents they serve.
To his credit score, the great physician tried to make the most effective of a clumsy state of affairs.
On the one hand, if he stated Medicaid cuts will occur, the consequence would have been bedlam. However, if he denied the reductions, he risked angering the White Home — and placing his nomination probabilities someplace round zero.
On condition that actuality, he did what any good particular person on the new seat would do: he remained as imprecise as attainable for so long as attainable.
Dr. Oz identified — appropriately — that “Medicaid is the No. 1 expense for many states, consuming 30% of their budgets and crowding out important companies like colleges and public security.” He added that given this burden, “CMS ought to work with Congress to seek out efficiencies and stabilize our insurance coverage markets” and “be aggressive in modernizing our instruments to scale back fraud, waste and abuse.”
Truthful sufficient. And who isn’t for any of that? However what occurs when there’s nowhere close to sufficient funding to cowl the prices of care? We already know the reply: operators who can keep away from this system do. These that may’t will trim companies and lower bills by any means mandatory.
To say that is no trifling matter could be an enormous understatement. The way forward for the Medicaid program is of significant significance to assisted residing communities, nearly half of which have been licensed or licensed to take part in a state-federal Medicaid program as of 2018, in line with a 2023 report. Roughly 17% of assisted residing neighborhood residents have been Medicaid beneficiaries as of 2022, in line with a 2024 report from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Nationwide Middle for Well being Statistics.
Dr. Oz’s affirmation isn’t essentially a foul factor. However the outlook for Medicaid assist? That’s shaping as much as be a really completely different story.
John O’Connor is editorial director for McKnight’s Senior Dwelling and its sister media manufacturers, McKnight’s Lengthy-Time period Care Information, which focuses on expert nursing, and McKnight’s Dwelling Care. Learn extra of his columns right here.
