New York Times Examines Long-Term Care
The New York Times on July 7 published two articles examining long-term care. Summaries of the articles appear below.
- "Bringing Discipline (and Scorecards) to Nursing Homes": The article profiles Beverly Enterprises, the nation's largest nursing home chain, which Chair and CEO William Floyd has "turn[ed] around" over the last 18 months. Floyd has "se[t] clear financial goals" for managers of various homes, linked pay to the quality of care provided and "been relentless in demanding performance from individual facilities," the Times reports. Each home is measured on a scorecard, which judges pretax income, employee turnover, facility occupancy, bad debt and quality of care. In addition, the company has exited several unprofitable markets, including the state of Florida. But Beverly Enterprises still has "many challenges," the Times reports, including a criminal investigation by California officials into inadequate patient care and "uncertainty" about federal and state reimbursements to nursing homes (Abelson, New York Times, 7/7).
- "Companies Adding Benefits for Care of the Elderly": Ford Motor Company, J.P Morgan Chase and Pearson Education are just a few of the companies nationwide that are beginning to offer a "new class of corporate benefits" for workers who provide care for elderly relatives. The benefits are a "more individualized approach" to health care and include coverage for full-time geriatric care managers and assessments of seniors' homes by geriatric specialists. The Times reports that geriatric care benefits "make increasing sense" because American businesses lose about $11 billion annually in absenteeism, turnover and lost productivity from employees who care for elderly relatives (Jackson, New York Times, 7/7).
