Budget plan cuts funds to several Nevada programs

Monday, Feb. 7, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- President Bush's budget cuts back funding to hospitals, nursing homes and law enforcement in Nevada, a preliminary assessment shows.

Chuck Duarte, chief of the state Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, said today that Medicaid recipients won't be impacted. But he said there apparently will be reductions in federal funds for administration and for money that goes to state agencies and local government.

The state now collects a 6 percent tax from Nevada nursing homes and then gets matching federal funds from the Medicaid program. That has allowed the rates paid by the state to go from $122 a day per patient to $157 per day.

Under the Bush budget, Duarte said the maximum tax amount matched would be 3 percent, cutting in half the extra money that the nursing homes would receive from the federal reimbursement.

The state also collects money from counties to get matching federal funds through the Medicaid program. Some of that extra federal money is then funneled back into hospitals while the state keeps a share. It provides the hospitals with an extra $77 million, said Duarte.

Duarte said it was too early to tell what the impact would be but there will be fewer funds in this program.

Mike Willden, director of the state Department of Human Resources, said the Bush Administration did not cap the Medicaid spending as had been rumored.

He said there is going to be a $62 billion net increase in health and welfare spending.

The federal Justice Assistance Grant is reduced by 36 percent in President Bush's proposed budget, said Kim Evans, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Public Safety.

That grant provided an estimated $4.3 million to Nevada this fiscal year, Evans said. But it's too early to determine how much money Nevada will receive because the allocations are based on such things as population and the crime rates in states, Evans today.