Over the past few months, the Chicago Tribune has been running a series of reports on nursing home abuses in Illinois. The stories focused on the fact that Illinois was shifting the burden of paying for care of the mentally ill and some criminals by choosing to place them in nursing homes, which are substantially financed by Medicaid (a federal program)
After horrific stories discussing violent assaults on residents and caregivers, the Illinois Attorney General started doing more inspections and sweeps of nursing facilities to try and make the facilities safer. One series of sweeps identified over 100 nursing home residents with active arrest warrants - using the nursing homes as safe houses!
The good news is that the sweeps and updated inspections (mandated by law) have helped decrease the abuse. The bad news is that such oversight is expensive, and Illinois is chronically short of money.
The answer? A nursing home bed tax of $6.07 per resident per day. The money raised will help pay for the reforms. The bed tax will be returned to nursing homes via Medicaid, so those nursing homes with fewer Medicaid patients will bear the brunt of tax. A complete article is below.
New funds aimed at undoing legacy of violence in Illinois nursing homes - chicagotribune.com.
What do you think? Will continued cost shifting mean a future of less mixed pay (private/medicaid) facilities?
The good news is that the sweeps and updated inspections (mandated by law) have helped decrease the abuse. The bad news is that such oversight is expensive, and Illinois is chronically short of money.
Posted by: Private Nursing | January 24, 2012 at 11:14 PM