Monday, November 21, 2011
Get the Facts on long term care
Today, FHCA launched its "Get the Facts" social media campaign to share facts about long term care in Florida – including the impact that Medicaid/Medicare funding cuts are having on facilities’ ability to continue delivering high-quality care. The campaign will highlight long term care statistics in Florida, information related to FHCA’s legislative priorities, including reimbursement and regulatory efficiencies, the differences between nursing homes and assisted living facilities and more. Follow FHCA on Twitter or “Like” Florida Health Care Association on Facebook to follow the campaign and retweet/share these facts with your followers and friends, using the hashtag #GetTheFacts.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Florida long term care providers take to the nation's capital to urge Congress to protect Medicaid and Medicare funding.
Hear from FHCA Executive Director Emmett Reed on members traveling to Washington, DC, to urge Members of Congress to protect and preserve Medicare and Medicaid funding for long term care services. The message: The combination of state and federal funding cuts are taking their toll on our ability to deliver high-quality care and support vital caregiver jobs. Help take action today. Click here to send a message to your Member of Congress and help stand up for our state's seniors and people with disabilities.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Newest Ad in “Care Not Cuts” Informational Campaign highlights skilled nursing facilities post-acute care focus
FHCA's national affiliate, American Health Care Association, launched the latest TV spot in its nationwide information "Care Not Cuts" ad campaign to increase awareness regarding skilled nursing facilities’ growing prominence in post-acute care and warn against additional cuts to the sector.
“We must shed current perceptions that nursing homes are only for those who need long term care. Skilled nursing facilities are also a place where people can rehabilitate and receive necessary treatment before returning home,” said Governor Mark Parkinson, President & CEO of AHCA. “Congress must especially be aware of this progression of care because additional cuts to skilled nursing facilities would only drive up health care and taxpayers costs. Restricting access to skilled nursing facilities will force more seniors to remain in the hospital for longer, pricier periods of time, or go home before they’re fully recovered; eventually sending them back to the expensive emergency room.”
Airing throughout the Washington, DC, Beltway beginning today, “Rehab” was filmed at Southlake Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Jacksonville and features a senior who, after being in the hospital, received his post-acute care from a nursing home and then returned home. To learn more about the "Care Not Cuts" campaign, visit the website at http://www.carenotcuts.org/.
Tell Congress to Protect Quality Nursing Home Care, Preserve Caregiver Jobs
Congress is currently debating potential additional cuts to nursing homes and assisted living facilities, after already being dealt billions of dollars in cuts. While we understand the need for sacrifice, Florida's long term care facilities are already struggling from a drastic $187.5 million state Medicaid cut that went into effect earlier this year. The combination of that reduction on top of Medicare cuts from health care reform and federal regulation is taking its toll. The long term care profession simply cannot sustain additional cuts at this time without jeopardizing care and access for seniors, along with the jobs of caregivers committed to delivering that high quality care.
A group of long term care advocates from Florida will be traveling to Washington, DC, over the next several weeks to share our concerns with Congress. You can help have your voice heard by taking action today -- Click here to contact your Member of Congress and tell them to preserve, protect and defend quality nursing home care and assisted living care services for seniors and people with disabilities.
Please join us in telling Congress that continuous cuts threaten access to quality care for Florida's growing population of seniors and access to quality jobs for Florida's long term care workforce. You can also pass this link along to others and ask their help with standing up for those who cannot care for themselves.
A group of long term care advocates from Florida will be traveling to Washington, DC, over the next several weeks to share our concerns with Congress. You can help have your voice heard by taking action today -- Click here to contact your Member of Congress and tell them to preserve, protect and defend quality nursing home care and assisted living care services for seniors and people with disabilities.
Please join us in telling Congress that continuous cuts threaten access to quality care for Florida's growing population of seniors and access to quality jobs for Florida's long term care workforce. You can also pass this link along to others and ask their help with standing up for those who cannot care for themselves.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Jobs at risk as more cuts loom for Florida seniors’ Medicare and Medicaid-financed skilled nursing care
As economic conditions remain unstable for Florida and the nation, both Congress’ deficit reduction “super committee” and the White House have proposed yet another round of cuts to skilled nursing Medicare/Medicaid benefits for Florida’s seniors. Florida facilities are already reeling from a series of recent budgetary actions, with a $331.8 million cut to seniors’ Medicare-funded skilled nursing care set to take effect October 1. The proposed cuts being discussed in Washington as a way to reduce the nation’s deficit will severely jeopardize Florida’s oldest, sickest seniors – especially when combined with the growing pressure on our state Medicaid budget. In July, Florida’s Medicaid funding for seniors’ skilled nursing care was slashed by $187.5 million.
Protecting vulnerable seniors is a critical priority from which we must never deviate. Yet, they will suffer the most if further cuts are made to Medicare- or Medicaid-funded skilled nursing care. Facilities are already struggling to provide high quality care at the level today’s seniors expect and deserve, and the combination of additional Medicare cuts on top of the stress already placed on seniors’ state Medicaid benefits will severely undercut facility staffing efforts.
Throughout Florida and across America, frontline caregivers make a key difference in patient care – and these proposed cuts present a clear and present danger to their jobs. Seventy percent of facility costs go to pay for the people working to care for Florida’s 71,000+ seniors and people with disabilities in our state’s skilled nursing facilities. With both federal and state officials pushing policies to promote job creation in our country, more proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are simply counterproductive.
Too many Floridians have lost their jobs or had their homes foreclosed, and the road to recovery has been much too slow going. More cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will sidetrack our state’s ability to support good-paying health care jobs – 178,000 in Florida’s long term care facilities alone. As the Executive Director of the Florida Health Care Association, I am alarmed that nurses and caregivers will no longer be able to perform their vital services if the burden of cost savings continues to be unfairly placed on their service. Cutting out the people who provide great care will do nothing to protect our seniors.
Now, more than ever, older Americans need advocates - in Washington and in our state capital - to address the care needs of the first wave of Baby Boomers who turned 65 this year. Our social service safety net, particularly for the frail elderly, is already stretched way too thin. It needs to be shored up, not shot down.
Please contact your Members of Congress. The message is clear: Any further cuts at the federal or state level to Medicare or Medicaid threaten an already fragile long-term care system with unthinkable and tragic results. Further cuts threaten caregiver jobs, place quality of care at risk and very soon will limit access to people who need skilled nursing care.
J. Emmett Reed, CAE
FHCA Executive Director
Protecting vulnerable seniors is a critical priority from which we must never deviate. Yet, they will suffer the most if further cuts are made to Medicare- or Medicaid-funded skilled nursing care. Facilities are already struggling to provide high quality care at the level today’s seniors expect and deserve, and the combination of additional Medicare cuts on top of the stress already placed on seniors’ state Medicaid benefits will severely undercut facility staffing efforts.
Throughout Florida and across America, frontline caregivers make a key difference in patient care – and these proposed cuts present a clear and present danger to their jobs. Seventy percent of facility costs go to pay for the people working to care for Florida’s 71,000+ seniors and people with disabilities in our state’s skilled nursing facilities. With both federal and state officials pushing policies to promote job creation in our country, more proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are simply counterproductive.
Too many Floridians have lost their jobs or had their homes foreclosed, and the road to recovery has been much too slow going. More cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will sidetrack our state’s ability to support good-paying health care jobs – 178,000 in Florida’s long term care facilities alone. As the Executive Director of the Florida Health Care Association, I am alarmed that nurses and caregivers will no longer be able to perform their vital services if the burden of cost savings continues to be unfairly placed on their service. Cutting out the people who provide great care will do nothing to protect our seniors.
Now, more than ever, older Americans need advocates - in Washington and in our state capital - to address the care needs of the first wave of Baby Boomers who turned 65 this year. Our social service safety net, particularly for the frail elderly, is already stretched way too thin. It needs to be shored up, not shot down.
Please contact your Members of Congress. The message is clear: Any further cuts at the federal or state level to Medicare or Medicaid threaten an already fragile long-term care system with unthinkable and tragic results. Further cuts threaten caregiver jobs, place quality of care at risk and very soon will limit access to people who need skilled nursing care.
J. Emmett Reed, CAE
FHCA Executive Director
Monday, August 29, 2011
New Ad Campaign Urges “Care Not Cuts”
Long term, post-acute care sector launches fall media effort to help preserve, protect, defend seniors’ access to quality skilled nursing and rehabilitative care in Florida
The long term and post-acute care profession is uniting to launch a nationwide informational campaign, “Care Not Cuts,” and is running its first ad in the state of Florida beginning today. As Congress begins to examine ways to reduce the federal deficit, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (Alliance) have partnered with the state affiliate, the Florida Health Care Association (FHCA), to ensure federal lawmakers understand the vital need to preserve, protect and defend U.S. seniors’ access to quality skilled nursing and rehabilitative care.
“Already coping with billions of dollars in reductions from health care reform, federal regulations and a State Medicaid crisis, our facilities are feeling the impact,” said Emmett Reed, Executive Director of FHCA. “This campaign raises awareness among Florida’s Congressional delegation that we cannot sustain any more cuts, and who better to deliver this message than the dedicated caregivers who serve our seniors every single day?”
Beginning today and continuing through September 6, the first TV spot of the multi-month campaign, “Nurses,” features frontline caregivers. The text of the spot is as follows:
I work as a rehabilitation nurse. I love what I do.
In the last five years, nursing homes have absorbed billions in Medicare and Medicaid cuts.
Even so, we’ve maintained high quality care.
Now, there’s talk of more, deeper cuts. I understand the need for sacrifice.
We’ve given our fair share, and more.
But as a nurse who cares for her patients, I can tell you another round of deep cuts that target nursing homes simply goes too far.
In Florida, other caregivers are sharing similar concerns about the impact additional cuts would have on the residents they care for each day.
“Working in a nursing home is not just a job; it’s a calling,” said Lisa McFall, RN, of Palm Garden in Orlando. “It’s so rewarding to interact with my residents and make certain I’m helping them enjoy a good quality of life every day. However, I am deeply concerned that additional cuts to nursing homes may make it difficult for me to do this job that I love. These residents become like family, and I want to help protect and care for them.”
Reed said the informational campaign will proceed throughout the remainder of 2011 to draw attention to the fact local nursing homes and assisted living facilities are a critical part of the health care continuum, offering high-quality patient care and rehabilitation in a cost-effective manner. Long term and post-acute care facilities serve as a cornerstone of local communities’ employment base – reliably providing more than 178,000 jobs in Florida.
To view “Nurses,” please visit http://www.carenotcuts.org/.
The long term and post-acute care profession is uniting to launch a nationwide informational campaign, “Care Not Cuts,” and is running its first ad in the state of Florida beginning today. As Congress begins to examine ways to reduce the federal deficit, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (Alliance) have partnered with the state affiliate, the Florida Health Care Association (FHCA), to ensure federal lawmakers understand the vital need to preserve, protect and defend U.S. seniors’ access to quality skilled nursing and rehabilitative care.
“Already coping with billions of dollars in reductions from health care reform, federal regulations and a State Medicaid crisis, our facilities are feeling the impact,” said Emmett Reed, Executive Director of FHCA. “This campaign raises awareness among Florida’s Congressional delegation that we cannot sustain any more cuts, and who better to deliver this message than the dedicated caregivers who serve our seniors every single day?”
Beginning today and continuing through September 6, the first TV spot of the multi-month campaign, “Nurses,” features frontline caregivers. The text of the spot is as follows:
I work as a rehabilitation nurse. I love what I do.
In the last five years, nursing homes have absorbed billions in Medicare and Medicaid cuts.
Even so, we’ve maintained high quality care.
Now, there’s talk of more, deeper cuts. I understand the need for sacrifice.
We’ve given our fair share, and more.
But as a nurse who cares for her patients, I can tell you another round of deep cuts that target nursing homes simply goes too far.
In Florida, other caregivers are sharing similar concerns about the impact additional cuts would have on the residents they care for each day.
“Working in a nursing home is not just a job; it’s a calling,” said Lisa McFall, RN, of Palm Garden in Orlando. “It’s so rewarding to interact with my residents and make certain I’m helping them enjoy a good quality of life every day. However, I am deeply concerned that additional cuts to nursing homes may make it difficult for me to do this job that I love. These residents become like family, and I want to help protect and care for them.”
Reed said the informational campaign will proceed throughout the remainder of 2011 to draw attention to the fact local nursing homes and assisted living facilities are a critical part of the health care continuum, offering high-quality patient care and rehabilitation in a cost-effective manner. Long term and post-acute care facilities serve as a cornerstone of local communities’ employment base – reliably providing more than 178,000 jobs in Florida.
To view “Nurses,” please visit http://www.carenotcuts.org/.
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