Dateline: January 27, 2005

Bill could raise $168k for nursing home

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

A proposal in the Texas Legislature could result in Clarendon’s Medical Center Nursing Home receiving more than $168,000 in funding per year.

MCNH Administrator Alan Graham says the Texas Nursing Facility Continuation Act would allow the state to tap into currently unused federal dollars that are available for Medicaid beds in nursing homes.

Graham, who serves on the board of the Texas Health Care Association (THCA), was in Austin last week to discuss the proposal with Sen. Robert Duncan and Rep. Warren Chisum.

 “They [the Legislature] have been cutting our money,” Graham said. “Our philosophy is to put more money in the pool to increase our long-term care funds that are available from the federal government.”

If adopted, the proposed act would impose a fee on nursing facilities across the state of $7 per day per Medicaid-paid bed. The money raised from that fee would go into a pool to be matched with federal dollars to gain an estimated $16.58 per Medicaid patient per day.

“The important thing to remember is that this fee will not be passed on to patients,” Graham said. “It will be in the act that this fee cannot be passed on.”

THCH officials estimate the $7 assessment would generate $200 million and attract more than $300 million in federal revenue, creating a pool of more than $500 million for Texas nursing homes.

“That would mean an additional $168,735 for us locally,” Graham said.

Most nursing homes across the state would benefit from the program, but Graham admits there would be a few losers. Some private-pay facilities with unoccupied Medicaid beds would suffer a net loss because they would have to pay the assessment but not be eligible for the funds as long as those beds are unused.

Graham said in House District 88 there are 26 facilities that would benefit and none that would lose. In Senate District 28, one facility would lose and 90 would benefit.

The proposal could help lift Texas out of its ranking as one of the lowest states in terms of funding nursing home care. Texas ranks 45th out of 50 and spends $28.80 per patient per day less than the national average.

That low funding may be partly responsible for the high number of bankruptcies among nursing homes in Texas, where one in four homes were in bankruptcy in 2000-2001. 

MCNH is not in that particular position, but passage of the act would be a big help to the local home’s bottom line.

“That money could be the difference in us having health insurance or not for our employees,” Graham said. “It could help raise employees’ wages; it could help pay off bonds; it could do a lot of things.”

At press time, the proposal did not yet have a sponsor in either house of the Legislature, but THCA president Tim Graves said he expects to have one by the end of the week and thinks the proposal may pass.

“I feel good about our chances,” Graves said. “We’ll know more in the next few months.”

Graham said school finance will be the Legislature’s top priority this session, but he and Graves agree that it would be helpful for citizens to contact their representatives and urge them to support the proposal.