Otsego County Manor braces for Medicaid cuts

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August 21, 2012

Otsego County Manor braces for Medicaid cuts

By JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Aug 21, 2012, 03:30 AM EDT

COOPERSTOWN _ The state has trimmed the Medicaid reimbursement rate the Otsego Manor receives for numerous patients -- a move expected to cost Otsego County government hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, officials said Monday.

The reduction in the Medicaid rate comes at a time when county finances have become increasingly strained by the operation of the nursing home. The 174-bed Manor has had to cope with a steady decline in government support while costs are rising or labor, pension obligations and materials. This bleak scenario has prompted the county the Board of Representatives to begin to examine options that could lead to the facility being privatized.

After fielding an inquiry about the cut from the The Daily Star, Mark Lavigne, spokesman for the New York State Association of Counties, said the reduction for Otsego County resulted from a "new regional pricing methodology" being used by the state Department of Health.

"Some counties will see an increase and some will see a decrease," he said. He said the apparent goal of the Health Department's new Medicaid reimbursement policy is to drive more funds to areas where health care costs are relatively high, meaning downstate will get more money overall while upstate counties will generally get less.

Asked about the consequences for those counties ending up with less funding, Lavigne said, "It's unfair for counties that are seeing a decline in Medicaid reimbursement, particularly for those that are already subsidizing their homes and are faced with decisions about their long-term care facility."

About a dozen counties in New York are scrambling to sell their nursing homes to private operators, he said.

Otsego Manor administrator Edmund Marchi said the Medicaid reimbursement rate the facility receives for its Medicaid patients recently declined from about $194 a day to $189.87 a day. That change could end up costing the county close to $1 million a year, he said.

He said the Manor is in the process of doing everything it can to reduce expenditures while trying to provide more services for patients with Medicare, a separate program from Medicaid.

Asked if anything could be done to overturn the Medicaid decline, he said, "Not that I can see."

State Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said he had no immediate information on the Medicaid reimbursement reduction for Otsego County.

The New York Medicaid Redesign Team, set up by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January 2011, reported that it saved the state $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2012 by restructuring Medicaid programs.

County Treasurer Dan Crowell said he found the "lack of good communications" by the Health Department regarding the latest change to the Medicaid rate to be "disturbing," as it caught the county off guard.

County Rep. Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, said he expects the finances of the Manor will continue to be grim.

"There's no money out there so it won't get better," he said.