Long-Term Care Financing (Download as a PDF)

The Issue

The financing of services to persons needing daily assistance over an extended period of time requires resources from the public and private sector.  Whether the need is for skilled nursing care, home health care, or daily support for personal care activities, there is no cohesive or uniform long-term care or acute care strategy at either the federal or state level.  Like the rest of America, Louisiana is only beginning to experience all of the challenges posed by the “graying” of our population and it is vital the health care system be prepared.
 
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has highlighted several important health care initiatives, including the need for more long-term care options that are home and community-based, and involve traditional institutional care.  The proposals include allowing workers under nurse supervision to provide basic health care in home and community settings; creating a registry of support workers; revising and clarifying the law governing services for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled; and consolidating licensing responsibilities.  In addition, the Louisiana Legislature created a long-term care office within the health department with the responsibility for long-term care programs and budgets. 

While adopting new programs is an invaluable step forward for long-term care, fiscal measures are also needed to assure appropriate funding for long-term care resources in our state.  Federal and state payments have not kept pace with expanding costs of these services and inadequate financing for institutional and hospital care is leading to poor quality and increasingly severe staffing shortages.
The CHRISTUS Health Position: Support long-term care financing.
CHRISTUS Health supports the initiatives to build a national and statewide dialogue about transitioning long-term care financing to a more rational system that eases the financial burden on the sick and needy and the families that support them.
Additionally, CHRISTUS Health supports:

1. Medicare and Medicaid reform that better defines both the federal and state roles of an overall comprehensive system of long-term care financing, especially related to post-acute skilled nursing and home health care services as well as long-term services for the frail and chronically ill.
2. Adequate financing in Louisiana for those services covered by Medicaid.
3. Promotion of long-term care insurance, making it more affordable through tax credits, deductions, and/or subsidies.
4. Consumer protections in purchasing long-term care insurance.
5. Education of the Louisiana public on the potential need for long-term care; its costs, and the importance of responsible planning.
6. Continued support of specialty facilities that primarily treat long-stay Medicare patients, particularly those patients with multiple and chronic disease processes, i.e. the “medically complex” patient.

As our population ages, the health care delivery system will begin to experience a tremendous drain on resources with regard to long-term care needs.  CHRISTUS Health looks forward to addressing these problems with state leaders.

April 2007