For Immediate Release Media Contact: Jo Coffaro- South Bay Regional Vice President jcoffaro@hospitalcouncil.

net Tel: (916) 296-7363 Rebecca Rozen-East Bay Regional Vice President rrozen@hospitalcouncil.net Tel: 925-746-1550 Ron Smith West Bay Senior Vice President rlsmith@hospitalcouncil.net Tel: 415-616-9990

Bay Area Hospitals Urge Legislature to Spare Seniors from Deep Medi-Cal Cuts
Preserving Access to Hospital-Based Skilled-Nursing Care is Critical to States Most Vulnerable Patients As the 2013 legislative session draws to a close, local hospital leaders are urging lawmakers to protect access to hospital-based skilled-nursing care by reversing draconian Medi-Cal cuts. Our hospitals are dependent on safe, well run care facilities like Jewish Home, Laguna Honda, and Seton Hospital for post hospital care. If AB 900 is not passed and these care facilities must reduce the number of patients they can serve, many of our hospitals will become filled and they will not be able to admit patients who require acute care. This will be a tragedy to quality of care and our health care system". Ron L. Smith, Senior Vice President of Hospital Council of Northern and Central California. Medi-Cal beneficiaries make up nearly 80 percent of the patients receiving hospital-based skilled-nursing care in California. These patients often require specialized or medically complex care that freestanding nursing facilities and other health care providers do not provide. In the last five years, approximately 40 hospital-based skilled nursing facilities in California (about one-third) have closed due to financial issues. Over Forty Senior Care Facilities have closed in California as a result of the Medi-Cal cuts.

In the Bay Area, there is a profound shortage of hospital-based skilled nursing beds. That means virtually no options for medically fragile patients who become displaced because of the Medi-Cal cuts. In San Francisco, for example, Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center with 98% of its 800 beds occupied by Medi-Cal patients would be severely affected by a $60 million cut, and Jewish Home, with 75 percent of its beds occupied by Medi-Cal patients would face a $19 million cut. Seton Coastside is the only hospital in San Mateo County that provides skilled nursing care for these patients. If AB900 is not passed, they may need to close their doors.

AB 900 is supported by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors of Alameda, and San Francisco counties. It is also supported by coalitions including labor, business, local government, non-profits and health care leaders including Alzheimers Association, Children Now, Childrens Defense Fund-California, The Children Partnership, PICO California, United Ways of California, and Association of California Healthcare Districts. AB 900, which is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File, may be considered on Friday August 30. The bill has received unanimous bipartisan support. Not a single lawmaker has cast a no vote on the bill during roll calls in both the Assembly and the Senate. The Hospital Council of Northern and Central California is a nonprofit hospital and health system trade association established in 1961, representing 183 hospitals in 50 of Californias 58 counties from Kern County to the Oregon border. The Hospital Councils membership includes hospitals and health systems ranging from small, rural hospitals to large, urban medical centers, representing more than 38,000 licensed beds. ###