Long-term care is a costly proposition and for some providers, it's a money-losing one,
too. At the same time, more and more Arizonans need this kind of care. It means asking the state Legislature for more dollars.
David Voepel is the CEO of the Arizona Health Care Association which represents the state’s nursing homes. He says the long-term care sector hasn’t seen an increase in reimbursement rates in years.
"Right now, if you just look at skilled nursing, we're $32.57 behind per patient day," Voepel said.
So if you have 100 residents and 60 of them are on ALTCS, which covers the cost of long-term care, that facility is losing roughly $2,000 a day.
"You can't survive off of that," he says. "So we are gonna go for a $14.4 million increase for long-term care, and we'll be running separate legislation on that, and also asking for the governor's office support and for legislative leader support."
Another bill he expects to be re-introduced would allow families to place a camera in their loved one’s nursing home room. A similar bill was killed last year.
