Crisis looms in funding for nursing homes

Medicare cuts could mean $32 M loss

Nursing homes say a crisis is looming if a soon-to-expire funding mechanism isn’t re-instated. The industry faces a 17 percent cut in Medicare payments, which would mean an annual loss in Colorado of more than $27 million and in Wyoming a loss of nearly $5 million.

“This is not a reduction in the rate of growth,´ said Arlene Miles, executive director of the Colorado Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing homes.

It’s a cut of almost $64 per patient per day at 175 Medicare facilities across the state, says a new analysis by…