Walker Proposes Nursing-home Tax

Walker Proposes Nursing-home Tax


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Gov. Olene Walker wants to resurrect a tax on nursing homes that would generate matching federal Medicaid funds.

A nursing home association favors the tax but not Walker's proposal to use $750,000 of the federal money to help patients pay for prescription drugs.

"We support this tax under the condition that all the money come back to the nursing homes," said Dirk Anjewierden, executive director of the Utah Health Care Association.

The association represents 75 percent of the long-term care facilities in Utah and sought the tax as a way to boost the number of Medicaid dollars the industry gets.

For every dollar the state spends on Medicaid, the federal government provides $3.

The tax would be an assessment based on the gross receipts of the facilities. It is expected to generate more than $4 million for the state to put into Medicaid, resulting in the federal government increasing its contribution by more than $12 million.

The industry would get all but $750,000 of the additional money, under Walker's proposal.

"We felt that the increased cost of pharmaceuticals was an important part of this," said Lynne Ward, the governor's deputy chief of staff. "We felt it was important to help the patients as well as the nursing homes."

Anjewierden said 70 percent of patients in nursing homes are on Medicaid, and the state spending has been woefully inadequate.

"The problem is the state just doesn't have any money. This is something where we said we had the ability to solve our own problems and not cost the state of Utah any money, but in return, you give it all back to us," he said.

Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, a registered nurse who sits on the House Health and Human Services Committee, said she has not yet decided if she supports Walker's proposal.

"I do have some concerns that the revenue being generated is not staying directly with them as the beneficiary," she said. "Their big concern is staying in business. The state has a vested interest in making sure we have a stable supply of providers."

A 2002 study by the American Health Care Association listed Utah as one of the 10 worst states in the country in providing Medicaid dollars for nursing homes.

In 2001, the Legislature repealed a tax assessed on nursing homes that had generated $4.2 million, but not all the money made it to nursing homes.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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