Despite
Bankruptcies,
Analysts Say Medicare Nursing
Home Payments
Adequate
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As Congress prepares to
restore billions
of dollars in Medicare
payments to health
care providers who say that a
1997 law
cut too deeply, government
experts told
the Senate Special Committee
on Aging
yesterday that payments for
nursing
home care are already
sufficient to
cover patients' costs,
according to
a Reuters report.
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Industry leaders,
however, are
lobbying the government to
increase
the Medicare payments that
nursing homes
receive for patient care.
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Government efforts to
trim the
growth of Medicare payments
are wreaking
financial havoc on the
nation's nursing
homes, they said, and already
five of
the nation's 10 largest
nursing home
chains have filed
bankruptcy.
But Committee Chairman Sen.
Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa) said he is
not convinced
that the nursing home industry
needs
more money.
style='mso-spacerun: yes'> He said there is little evidence that
patient
care has been jeopardized by
Medicare
reforms that took effect in
1998 and
established fixed payments for
services.
Grassley said that if
nursing
homes are to receive payment
increases
in an upcoming Medicare bill,
"such
legislation can only be
justified if
necessary to ensure
beneficiaries' access
to services."
style='mso-spacerun: yes'> While nursing home chains have
been filing
for bankruptcy at what some
policy-makers
consider an alarming rate—some
10 percent
of the nation's skilled
nursing facility
(SNF) beds are owned by
companies that
have filed for chapter
11—those bankruptcies
have not been caused by
insufficient
Medicare payments, witnesses
said.
"We believe that
Medicare SNF
payments are likely to provide
sufficient—and
in some cases, even
generous—compensation
for services furnished to
Medicare beneficiaries,"
Laura Dummit of the General
Accounting
Office testified.
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“Our work indicates
that the
problems experienced by these
corporations
(in bankruptcy) can be traced
to strategic
business decisions made during
a period
when Medicare was exercising
too little
control over its
payments."
George Grob of the
Office of
the Inspector General at the
Department
of Health and Human Services
said a
study of discharge planners
conducted
by his office found basically
the same
results as GAO.
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yes'> The industry disagreed with those findings.
style='mso-spacerun: yes'> "Without adequate reimbursement
to meet
operating and capital
requirements,
providers cannot
survive," testified
Charles H. Roadman, President
and CEO
of the American Health Care
Association.
Read the hearing and its
testimonies
in full by clicking on the
following
link.
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href='http://www.senate.gov/~aging/hr57.htm'>http://www.senate.gov/~aging/hr57.htm
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt'>District
Court Awards Millions to
Bankruptcy
Trustee in Fraud On Creditors
Suit
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:
normal'>The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
yesterday
found in favor of a trustee
who sought
to recover more than $15
million in
transfers made by the
president and
sole shareholder of a
corporation to
family members and other
recipients
prior to the bankruptcy filing
of his
company, according to a
newswire report.
District
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt'>Judge
John G. Koeltl
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;
font-weight:normal'> of the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New
York found for Yann Geron, the
bankruptcy
trustee of Manshul
Construction Corp.,
in a consolidated lawsuit
seeking to
recover millions of dollars in
transfers
made by Allan Schulman,
Manshul's president
and sole shareholder, to his
wife Nancy
Schulman, and various other
entities
controlled or owned by the
Schulmans,
including an offshore foreign
asset
protection trust.
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The court found that the trustee
proved that
the Schulmans transferred more
than
$15 million of Manshul's and
Allan Schulman's
assets with the intent to
defraud their
creditors. The court rejected
the Schulmans'
defense that the transfers
were made
for legitimate estate and tax
planning
purposes.
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Before 1994, Manshul
was a profitable
public works construction
company headed
by Allan Schulman.
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18.0pt'>
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt'>Golf
Communities of America Inc.
Chapter
11 Plan of Reorganization
Approved
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Bankruptcy
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt'>Judge
Arthur B. Briskman
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;
font-weight:normal'> approved a plan of reorganization in the chapter 11
case
of Golf Communities of America
Inc.
on Friday, according to a
newswire report.
The case, one of
Central Florida's
largest ever, included
approximately
$160 million in outstanding
debts, and
was originally filed in July
1999.
According to attorney
Denise Dell
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
18.0pt;font-weight:normal'>, who represents the Committee of Unsecured
Creditors,
the plan transfers four pieces
of property
valued at approximately $11
million
to the committee, free of the
pre-petition
mortgage of Credit
Suisse.
The remaining assets
will be
transferred to Credit
Suisse.
The plan also provides
for the
liquidation of the assets of
Golf Communities
of America Inc. and its
affiliated entities,
effectively ending the life of
the original
operating company. Orlando,
Fla.-based
Golf Communities of America
specialized
in the acquisition,
development, management,
and marketing of golf
properties.
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United
Artists Files
For Protection
United Artists Theater Co.
yesterday
announced it has filed chapter
11 while
it reorganizes to reduce debt
and expenses,
according to a newswire
report.
style='mso-spacerun: yes'> In its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court
in Wilmington, Del., the
Englewood,
Colo.-based movie theater
chain operator
said it intends to reduce debt
of about
$720 million and interest
expenses of
$75 million to about $260
million and
$27 million.
style='mso-spacerun:
yes'> The reorganization plan calls for handing over majority
control
of United Artists to its
biggest bondholder
and creditor, the Denver-based
Anschutz
Corp., which would get about
55 percent
of United Artists undiluted
shares.
United Artists CEO Kurt Hall
said "unprecedented"
levels of
"over-screening"
in the form of $3.5 billion
worth of
investments in the past three
years
by the nation's top five movie
theater
companies to build
"megaplex"
theaters is the main reason
for the
recent problems in the theater
business.
Edwards Cinemas and
Carmike Cinemas
Inc. filed for bankruptcy
protection
this summer.
style='mso-spacerun: yes'> Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp.
last week
reported that its
year-over-year revenue
was "considerably
lower" and
warned it might default on its
debt.
