TRENTON — The chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee today called Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal to reduce the state’s $37.2 million reimbursement for nursing homes and specialty hospitals "a mistake" and said he wouldn’t support it when the budget is voted on in June. The committee chairman, Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), said nothing presented during the hearing on the Department...
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N.J. Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden)TRENTON — The chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee today called Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal to reduce the state’s $37.2 million reimbursement for nursing homes and specialty hospitals "a mistake" and said he wouldn’t support it when the budget is voted on in June.
The committee chairman, Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), said nothing presented during the hearing on the Department of Health and Senior Services’ $3.5 billion proposed budget convinced him that such cuts were necessary.
"The first thing they have to do is recognize this is a mistake," Greenwald said in an interview. "Then we can go from there."
Greenwald took exception to Christie’s proposed $4.7 million reduction for "special care nursing facilities" like Broadway House in Newark, the state’s only long-term facility for AIDS patients; Children’s Specialized Hospital, a rehabilitation facility in Mountainside; and the JFK Hartwyck Huntington’s Disease Unit at Cedar Brook in Plainfield.
The acting Health and Senior Services commissioner, Mary O’Dowd, said the state would require hospitals to shave administrative costs like advertising and the chief executive’s pay. "No nursing or clinical care costs will be affected," O’Dowd said.
Greenwald wasn’t convinced, calling the decision "a cut we’ll end up regretting."
"It’s a small enough amount of money," he added. "We should be able to find it."
Paul Langevin of the New Jersey Association of Health Care Facilities said any cuts threaten the viability of these are small, specialized programs that have spared regular hospitals from excessive costs.
"If these places close down, these people are going back into the hospital," he said.
The proposed health budget also calls for all nursing homes to take a cut of about 3 percent, saving the state $25 million, O’Dowd said. "Let me stress that no nursing facility will lose more than $10 per patient day," she said.
The average nursing home charges about $175 a day, according to a budget analysis by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.
The industry would also lose $7.5 million under Christie’s proposal because the state will no longer pay to hold a bed when nursing home patients on Medicaid stay in a hospital for up to 10 days.
Langevin said the long-term care industry would be harmed by Christie’s proposals.
Six years ago, he said the industry proposed a tax on itself to help "put $450 million in state coffers — and our reward has been a $566 million cut, including the 2012 budget."
