Medicare benefits change proposed in Senate bill

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

Thousands of Nevada's senior citizens may get a breather if a Senate budget plan presented today passes in the coming weeks, a staffer for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

The bill, a bipartisan package drawn up at the last minute Monday before the fiscal year closes today, proposes adding $2.6 billion to Medicare benefits over the next three years.

The budget package comes on the heels of a months-long campaign by the American Health Care Association to avoid $17 million in Medicare cuts proposed by the Bush administration.

"This is very good and welcome news to long-term care providers and senior citizens in Nevada," Charles Perry, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the national association, said.

With the fiscal year starting today, Congress will have to pass continuing resolutions to have agencies continue operating as they have during the past year, while the bill is debated in the coming weeks.

"Wall Street and other analysts agree it's a fair and balanced approach, given the competing needs the Senate Finance Committee had to deal with," Reid's staffer said.

Reid supported the bill, saying improving access to health care for Nevada's seniors was one of his highest priorities.

The cuts would have hit Nevada harder than most states, representing about $38 and $75 less per patient every day in the years 2003 and 2004, respectively. This would have been the eighth-largest drop in Medicare payments in the nation.

"This is because the costs of providing care are generally higher here," Perry said.

"When you put this together with our nursing shortage and the increase in the population receiving Medicare, you can see why this would have been a disaster for Nevada," he said.

The news of the plan came hours after Perry and several dozen seniors and their doctors and nurses held a teleconference to urge Congress not to make cuts to the program. The event was held at TLC Care Center in Henderson.

"This could be your mother, your grandmother, your favorite aunt who is affected," said Kristen Christiansen, a registered nurse at the center.

About 30 percent of seniors in so-called skilled nursing facilities such as TLC receive Medicare, Perry said. There are about 4,200 beds in these facilities statewide and the average stay is less than 30 days.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and make our position known as this bill is debated," Perry said.