Utah's nursing homes are generally on firm financial footing now.

But next year, they may reach their limit on a bed tax that since 2004 has allowed them to draw down extra federal funding through Medicaid. That, coupled with pending cuts to another funding source, Medicare, and the bubble of baby boomers reaching retirement age, will over the next decade create a "perfect storm" for the long-term care industry, said Utah Health Care Association Director Dirk Anjewierden at a press conference on Tuesday.

"While we're doing OK today, demand is just getting greater and greater," he said. "If we don't address it today, it's going to be too late by tomorrow."

The event coincided with the association's annual conference at the Sandy Expo Center and the arrival of the American Health Care Association's "Driving for Quality Care" RV. The RV has been criss-crossing the country gathering signatures on a petition urging Congress and state Legislatures to resolve "the chronic underfunding" of rehabilitative, assisted living and long-term care facilities.

Earlier this year, the group called for an extension of federal emergency Medicaid funding, which Congress approved. Now they're urging states to spend that money as intended.

Anjewierden is resigned to the fact that Utah's share, about $57 million, likely won't stay with Medicaid, government-sponsored health insurance for seniors and people with disabilities.

Instead, the money will probably be used for schools and other hot spots in the state's recession-scorched budget, he said.

For now, nursing homes are getting by on a Medicaid bed tax that increases how much they are paid for care, and Medicare, a federal health program for seniors.

But that won't last, said Anjewierden, referring to a ceiling on the tax and $27 billion in cumulative cuts to Medicare in just the past nine months.

Medicaid is the largest payer of long-term care services, covering 64 percent of all nursing home patients.

And it's sorely underfunded, said John Williams, Executive Director of Crosslands Rehabilitation, a 108-bed facility in Sandy.

Reimbursement rates haven't kept pace with inflation and dental and podiatry care have been eliminated, Williams said. "Medicaid will pay for a person's tooth to be pulled, but not for a crown to preserve it. Either the facility or the family has to find a way to provide those services."

kstewart@sltrib.com