Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Financial Crisis Hurting Nursing Homes

Posted by Scarlett Lu




Nursing homes have been facing difficulties during the recession. Many nursing homes are on the verge of bankruptcy and others have already filed for chapter 11 protection. The senior facility faces many state government cuts that affect their services. Since people are living longe, nursing home care is increasing. Medicaid accounts for 2/3 of all dollars spent. The recent state cuts Medicaid reimbursements by 8% . The nursing home industry is able to make money on their Medicare reimbursements and the money they make helps offset what they lose in Medicaid. However the cuts in Medicaid will affect nursing homes in poor and rural areas because they rely heavily on Medicare reimbursements.

American Association of Retired Persons wants to increase spending by $45 million a year on programs to help the elderly. Nursing homes need more beds; elderly need home and community based care. Keeping the Medicare budget means that it can only be spent on seniors.

If Medicare reimbursements are cut the employees at nursing homes will be the first to be affected by this. People will lose their jobs and the elderly will not receive the care they need.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/522645/aarp_nursing_homes_face_off/index.html

2 comments:

  1. This makes sense because the cost of nursing care, especially Central New York is absurd. In some cases it is over $300 a day. - Zachary Pienkowski

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  2. If this plan of "American Association of Retired Persons wants to increase spending by $45 million a year on programs to help the elderly." it would be very helpful to many people, who depend on these type of services.By- Anshu Dixit

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