Ohio nursing homes report thousands of job cuts

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio nursing homes have slashed thousands of jobs amid recent cuts in federal and state government funding, according to industry surveys. Advocates warn that patient care will worsen as there are fewer workers to tend to them, but the state says more patients are moving to home-based care, an area where jobs are opening up.

Member nursing homes surveyed by the Ohio Health Care Association reported that some 2,800 jobs were eliminated since July 1, mainly nurses and nursing assistants, the trade group’s executive director, Peter Van Runkle, told The Columbus Dispatch.

Another group, Leading-Age Ohio, said its nonprofit nursing home members have cut more than 300 jobs in recent weeks.

The reductions have come against a backdrop of government cutbacks. The federal government announced in July that it would cut Medicare payments to nursing homes by 11 percent to correct an unintended spike in payments this year because of a glitch in a formula. Meanwhile, the state has trimmed Medicaid reimbursements to nursing homes by an average 5.8 percent per patient, the Dayton Daily News reported.

The government programs cover 70 percent of the costs of nursing-home care.

“Nursing homes were expecting the state cuts ... but were caught by surprise when the federal government cut Medicare payments,” Van Runkle said. “That hit [nursing homes] hard.”

The quality of care and nursing home employment will be hurt over the long haul by the more limited funding, said John Alfano, president and CEO of LeadingAge Ohio.

Eric Poklar, a spokesman for Gov. John Kasich’s Office of Health Care Transformation, asserted that the job losses at nursing homes are being offset by new work in other options for long-term care as state funding is “rebalanced.”

“Taxpayers can’t afford to pay for costly institutional care in nursing homes like we did in the past, especially when seniors are saying loud and clear that they prefer to receive services in home- and community-based settings,” Poklar said.