LEWISTON — A meeting was recently held regarding the proposed 10 percent cut to long-term care/MaineCare funding as noted in the Governor’s 2010 Supplemental Budget.

There was standing room only at the town hall-type meeting with area residents, caregivers, health care professionals and long-term care residents in attendance. After the panel introductions were made, many questions came from the audience in regards to the quality of long-term care and how cuts might affect their loved ones living in a nursing center.

The meeting featured a panel with Sen. Margaret Craven; Rep. Peggy Rotundo; Rep. Patrick Flood; Mary Jane Richards, COO of North Country Associates, a Maine-based health care company that owns and manages several long-term care facilities in Maine; and Richard Erb, president and CEO of Maine Health Care.

Rotundo, Flood and Craven
expressed their concerns over the proposed cuts, but reiterated the need
to balance the Maine budget. 

Erb discussed the most recent cuts that long-term care facilities have had to make over the last several budget cycles. He said that the state and federal governments mandate the staff to resident ratio. If a 10 percent cut is made to long-term care facilities, those facilities would have to cut staff, which means higher unemployment and less staff to meet the mandated staff ratios, he said.

Richards told the audience that rural long-term care centers that have a high percentage of MaineCare residents will have to make many cuts or close their doors. Richards said that facilities across the state have already made many changes to increase efficiency, like sharing staff and managers between facilities.

Craven and Rotundo serve on the Appropriations Committee in Augusta. They encouraged everyone to e-mail or write them with ideas on ways the state might meet this looming budget shortfall.