Home

Massachusetts Nursing Home Crisis Recommendations

Wed, 02/07/2001 - 1:00am — Karen Stevenson
Description: 

The Massachusetts Health Care Task Force has issued an interim report which makes recommendations for dealing with the nursing home crisis in that state. They point out that 25% of the nursing homes in the state are owned by corporations in bankruptcy, all of them large companies which are not based in Massachusetts. People in Massachusetts use nursing homes at a higher rate than the national average, and Massachusetts nursing homes have a larger proportion of Medicaid residents than the national average, both factors that have contributed to the crisis.

The task force points out that the option of waiting to see how this will play out is not a viable option. So many nursing homes in the state are in bankruptcy that if they all closed and forced their residents to find a new place to stay, there would not be enough empty beds in the state to accept them. Having nursing home residents return to the community is not an option either, both because of the level of care that they need and because few community-based services accept Medicaid as payment. Medicaid is responsible for the cost of care of 70% of the residents in the state.

The task force also blanched at the idea of bailing out the nursing homes. They expressed concern the revenue from rate increases would not be used for patient care, or even used to benefit the local facility in any way, but would instead be routed back to the main office located out of state, and used to pay off debt or settle bankruptcy issues.

Instead, the task force recommends some targeted interim assistance, coupled with a more comprehensive analysis and revision of the long term care system in Massachusetts. They are especially interested in developing ways to help nursing homes find and pay for sufficient staff, since staffing problems have been a big contributor to the current problems.

The Massachusetts Health Care Task Force has issued an interim report which makes recommendations for dealing with the nursing home crisis in that state. They point out that 25% of the nursing homes in the state are owned by corporations in bankruptcy, all of them large companies which are not based in Massachusetts. People in Massachusetts use nursing homes at a higher rate than the national average, and Massachusetts nursing homes have a larger proportion of Medicaid residents than the national average, both factors that have contributed to the crisis.

The task force points out that the option of waiting to see how this will play out is not a viable option. So many nursing homes in the state are in bankruptcy that if they all closed and forced their residents to find a new place to stay, there would not be enough empty beds in the state to accept them. Having nursing home residents return to the community is not an option either, both because of the level of care that they need and because few community-based services accept Medicaid as payment. Medicaid is responsible for the cost of care of 70% of the residents in the state.

The task force also blanched at the idea of bailing out the nursing homes. They expressed concern the revenue from rate increases would not be used for patient care, or even used to benefit the local facility in any way, but would instead be routed back to the main office located out of state, and used to pay off debt or settle bankruptcy issues.

Instead, the task force recommends some targeted interim assistance, coupled with a more comprehensive analysis and revision of the long term care system in Massachusetts. They are especially interested in developing ways to help nursing homes find and pay for sufficient staff, since staffing problems have been a big contributor to the current problems.