Nursing home industry worried about health law mandates; Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid

During a roundtable meeting with reporters, Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, detailed the concerns of nursing homes.

Kaiser Health News: Nursing Home Industry Leader Worries About Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid
Mark Parkinson, who heads the nation's largest nursing home lobby, finds it hard to celebrate government estimates predicting an explosion in the number of Americans aged 85 and older during the next few decades (Galewitz, 4/19).

Politico Pro: Nursing Homes Want Out Of Mandate
The American Health Care Association, the largest trade group representing nursing homes, will seek exemption from the requirement that employers provide health insurance or pay a fine said the group's president, Mark Parkinson, during a roundtable with reporters. Parkinson, former governor of Kansas, said that "the economics are not there" to make it feasible for many of the group's members to offer health benefits to their employees because of the low reimbursement rates paid by Medicare and Medicaid. He also said the amount of employer penalties nursing homes would face would "put the overwhelming number of nursing homes" at the point where they would be losing money and might have to close (Feder, 4/19).