The usual tactics - a pricey television advertizing blitz, personal pressure on lawmakers and piles of campaign contributions - didn't work this time for Ohio's nursing homes.The two-year state budget Gov. John Kasich sign[ed] into law [6/30/11] slashes Medicaid rates paid to nursing homes by nearly 6 percent starting [7/1/11], and it eliminates guaranteed increases that the powerful lobby persuaded legislators to put into state law years ago.
"In some ways you live by the sword, you die by the sword," said Robert Applebaum, director of the Ohio Long-Term Care Research Project at Miami University's Scripps Gerontology Center.
"There are only two states where the reimbursement formula is in state law, and Ohio is one of them. In the past, that has served nursing homes well because they have done better than other Medicaid providers. ... But when budgets are tight, it can have a very negative impact."
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Once Powerful Nursing Homes Take a 6% Hit in New Budget
Think the CEO's will take a cut? No way, they'll just pay the help less and cut back in staffing to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteOHIO Governor John Kasich Is moving in the right direction! According to a recent story in the Columbus Dispatch, Governor John Kasich stated,
ReplyDeleteThe shifting of state funding away from costly institutional settings will allow an additional 12,890 seniors to choose home care because of the lower costs.
As Gov. Kaisch recently told a group of Ohio seniors: "In the past if somebody wanted to stay in their home, there were limited opportunities for them to do it. That day is Gone. I can't think of anything more important to a senior than to be able to stay in their home With assistance rather than being put in a facility that they're not comfortable with."
"Governor Kasich is taking a stand to do what's best for seniors, and his state's budget," said Billy Tauzin, senior advisor to the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare. "Policymakers nationwide should look to Gov. Kasich as an example of how innovative, forward thinking reforms are the way to a better future for seniors and all taxpayers alike."
Approximately 32,000 Ohioans are currently enrolled in the PASSPORT program, with an average cost per person per month of $1,344. In contrast, the state of Ohio pays an average of $4,017 per person per month for nursing-home care.
My Mother, through no fault of her own is "Forced" by her guardian without medical necessity or court order to be held prisoner in a nursing facility, isolated from family, and friends for over four years. Mother has suffered unnecessary physical and mental abuse by the guardian and others that have neglected her medical and personal needs.
I assure you Mother does not receive over $4,000 a month in care at the Heartland nursing facility in Hillsboro Ohio.
There is a Least Restrictive Environment right here in my home, which is exactly where Mother wants to be.
And, I assure you would cost MUCH LESS to care for Mother at home, where she would receive one on one care rather than at a facility, that is always short of help, reciving negligent care because management would rather pocket State Funding for their salaries rather than hiring enough, QUALIFIED nurses and aides to make sure the nursing home residents are properly cared for.
Instead, nursing home management and administration would rather our Taxpayers foot the bill, pay unnescessary, Hundreds Of Thousands of dollar$ in State Medicaid Funding for elderly residents that don't have to be there to guarantee Management gets the big bucks.
Ohio Officials Must understand Many...nursing institutions are not meeting the medical and personal needs of the disabled and elderly and need a complete over-haul.
SHAMEFUL
Jane Branson
Hillsboro Ohio
Daughter of Mollie Florkey, a Victim of Guardianship Abuse And
Negligence in a nursing facility.
How many other Mollie Florkey's are in nursing homes that need not be there ?