A new analysis of pending health care reforms by the American Health Care Association says that Connecticut could face more than $1 billion in cuts over a 10-year period to Medicare-funded nursing home care.
According to the AHCA, the U.S. House of Representatives’ health care reform bill — America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) — includes provisions that would significantly cut Medicare payments for skilled nursing facility care.
The study found that the proposed legislation, combined with the $12 billion, 10- year Medicare cuts recently put into effect by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would cause nursing care in 15 states to face funding cuts in excess of $1 billion each.
Nationally, the study finds, seniors’ Medicare cuts will total $44 billion over 10 years, which would put at risk 50,000 jobs across the country.
If the legislation passes, Connecticut faces $1.1 billion in Medicare cuts over 10 years. In the first year of the legislation, 1,011 jobs in the state would be at risk, which would eliminate $80 million in business activity and $42 million in labor income, the study said.
The AHCA is a nonprofit federation of affiliated state health organizations, representing more than 10,000 nonprofit and for-profit assisted living, nursing facility, developmentally disabled, and sub-acute care providers that care for more than 1.5 million elderly and disabled individuals nationally.
“The bottom line is that U.S. seniors’ Medicare-funded nursing care will be substantially undermined by the pending health reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of AHCA. “Arguments being made that seniors’ benefits will not be reduced by the House bill ignore the fact that when Medicare cuts provider reimbursement, providers, in turn, are forced to cut staff because labor expenses comprise 70 percent of facility costs. Cutting staff within a facility has a direct, immediate, negative impact on patients and their care — and that is what the House bill will do.”
Yarwood said lawmakers need to take into account the fact the Medicaid program already under funds the cost of providing care by at least $4.2 billion annually.
Coburn & Meredith To Relocate
Downtown Hartford will lose another tenant by the end of the year as financial services firm Coburn & Meredith, which has called the city home for 75 years, relocates.
The company, which employs over 50 people in Connecticut and Massachusetts, will open up and relocate to two new offices in Simsbury and Glastonbury.
Twelve staff members have already moved out of the city and into the Simsbury office located on Old Mill Lane. The Glastonbury office will open later this year, at which point the remaining staff in Hartford will move.
Coburn & Meredith, which provides financial consulting and planning, insurance, and wealth management, called Hartford home for over 75 years. They will be moving out of their current office space in Goodwin Square located on 225 Asylum Ave.
Robert Daly, managing director of Coburn & Meredith, said the move provides the company cost savings since it was able to find cheaper rents outside the city.
“Hartford wasn’t fitting our needs anymore,” Daly said.
Big Loss For First Litchfield
First Litchfield Financial Corp., which received $10 million in TARP money last December, reported an 82 percent drop in net income for the second quarter of 2009.
The one-bank holding company for The First National Bank of Litchfield reported a second quarter net income available to common shareholders of $108,906 compared to $616,448 in the year ago period.
The decrease was largely attributed to money the banking company had to put up for bad loans and leases and other noninterest expenses.
In December, First Litchfield Financial Corp., which has $551 million in assets, accepted $10 million in government aid.
“Second quarter results were heavily impacted by the additional costs for FDIC insurance as well as by an increased provision for loan and lease losses,” said Joseph J. Greco, president and CEO of the company. “However, we are optimistic with regard to new business development. During the second quarter, we continued to build new business relationships with consumers, commercial banking, and wealth management customers.”
The bank put up $517,589 for loan and lease loss provisions during the second quarter ending June 30, compared to $137,000 in the year ago period. The year-over-year increase “is due to economic uncertainty, the continued downturn in the real estate markets both regionally and nationally, analysis of the risk within the loan portfolio, as well as the growth in the loan and lease portfolio,” the bank said.
Greg Bordonaro is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
