‘Woefully Inadequate’ Medicaid Process Endangers Nursing Home Patients
Medicare only covers the first 100 days for skilled nursing care, and then the patient has to switch over to Medicaid. But that process can be extraordinarily slow, causing some to be discharged even though they need care. A series of articles looks at this and other issues involving nursing homes.
The Associated Press:
Broken Federal System Threatens Elderly Patients’ Safety
A common event that can force someone out of a nursing home involves disputes over money, particularly the finer details of two government health insurance programs for the elderly, Medicare and Medicaid. This difference between the two, consumer advocates say, can give nursing home operators an incentive to discharge patients when the more generous Medicare benefit expires. (Eisenberg, 10/4)
The Associated Press:
Why Do People End Up In Unlicensed Assisted Living Homes?
Vonda Wagner and Andrew Edwards said they were kicked out of their licensed nursing homes and wound up in an unlicensed assisted living facility. Here’s how that happens in Maryland. (Antoshak, 10/4)
The Associated Press:
Maryland Nursing Home Patients Face Risks
In December, a 59-year-old woman who cannot speak after throat cancer surgery was left outside of a Baltimore homeless center with no money and no phone — in a city where she had no family and no close friends.Vonda Wagner of Rowlesburg, West Virginia, had fallen into a black hole in the regulatory system designed to protect nursing home patients. (Eichensehr, 10/4)
The Associated Press:
Nursing Homes’ Push For Profit Can Clash With Patient Needs
A bottom-line mentality in modern nursing home chains is clashing with a creaky regulatory system, a mixture that can leave vulnerable patients in unlicensed assisted-living facilities that are often inadequate and sometimes dangerous. (Sagalow and Antoshak, 10/4)
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