Nursing home associations join forces

The American Health Care Association and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care have agreed to join their organizations and operate under the AHCA name beginning July 1.

AHCA—which represents more than 11,000 not-for-profit and for-profit nursing facilities, assisted-living and sub-acute-care providers—will combine operations with the alliance, a coalition of 10 post-acute and long-term care organizations. Former Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson, who now serves as president and CEO of AHCA, offered a reason why the two groups have decided to team up.

“Today our profession stands at a crossroads. Faced with continued cuts and growing pressures on the systems that fund the care we provide, there was really only one choice—to band together to form one unified voice,” Parkinson said in a news release announcing the union of the two groups. “The economic straits our profession faces necessitated this union,” he added.

That economic picture includes about $14.8 billion in Medicare payment cuts over 10 years stemming from the 2010 healthcare reform law, as well as about $670 million this year alone from sequestration, according to Greg Crist, a spokesman for AHCA. Facilities are also affected by state cuts to Medicaid. Earlier this month, the skilled nursing segment received some good news when the CMS proposed a 1.4% payment increase for skilled-nursing facilities next year.

The joint announcement from AHCA and the Alliance noted that in the past 18 months, the two organizations have hit record membership numbers that represent independent owners, not-for-profit groups and regional centers. Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance, said in the statement that the two organizations have worked closely together for more than a decade to improve quality, transparency and accountability.

“Through unity of purpose and mission, together we will continue to spotlight the fact that we are a key part of the solution to Medicare and Medicaid cost containment and that the barrage of federal and state funding cuts are unsustainable—compromising our ability to continue providing high quality long-term and post-acute care to America's growing population of seniors,” Rosenbloom said.

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