nursing homes

Who Really Owns Nursing Homes, And How The Feds Are About To Learn More

The federal government wants to know more, and wants consumers to know more, about who owns  nursing homes. It is about time. And it may help identify some of the worst actors who pollute the nursing home industry. However, without easier access to this new information, I’m not sure how helpful it will be for prospective residents and their families. [...]

By |2023-11-27T11:22:48-05:00November 27th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

Three Experiments To Help Reduce The Shortages Of Senior Care Workers

The US is desperately short of nurses, personal care aides, and other direct care workers who help frail older adults and younger people with disabilities manage their days. Instead of dealing with the problem, policymakers have, predictably, devolved into their usual partisan blame-mongering. Watch, if you can, this recent hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the worker [...]

By |2023-11-16T09:54:05-05:00November 16th, 2023|nursing homes, Senior housing|0 Comments

Fixing Nursing Homes Nine Small Steps At A Time

It hardly is news that nursing homes are in trouble. Consumers think they are unsafe; nurses, aides, and other staff are reluctant to work for them; hundreds of facilities are shutting and others are closing beds and even entire wings because they can’t staff them. How can these multiple problems be fixed? The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) [...]

By |2023-09-19T10:55:58-04:00September 19th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

What New Nursing Home Staffing Rules Would Mean For Residents And Patients

In a long-awaited and highly controversial decision, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed that nursing homes provide at least three hours of staff time daily for every patient or resident. Would it meaningfully improve care at nursing facilities? Not by much. The rule would require facilities to provide enough staff to deliver 33 minutes (.55 [...]

By |2023-09-05T11:37:08-04:00September 5th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

As The Covid Health Emergency Ends, Medicare Will Stop Paying for Many Skilled Nursing Stays

As the Covid-19 public health emergency ends, many older adults who need a post-hospital stay in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) will be in for an unpleasant surprise: Traditional Medicare may not pay. The change, one among dozens that affect older adults, restores rules from before the pandemic. But they are complicated and will shock many patients and their families, [...]

By |2023-05-11T10:22:26-04:00May 11th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

The Government Offers Nursing Homes A Carrot, The Stick Is Coming

Nursing homes have been pressing for more money from the state and federal governments, by far their biggest payers. Now they are close to getting it, but the extra payments may come with costly new obligations, especially related to staffing. The federal government is about to increase Medicare payments for skilled nursing care and, at the same time, states are [...]

By |2023-04-12T16:39:56-04:00April 12th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

A Way For Nursing Homes To Balance Resident Independence And Safety

The Covid-19 pandemic shined a light on how hard it is for long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities to balance residents’ health risks with their desire for independence and autonomy. A few have found the secret sauce. Most have not. A new study by the RAND Corporation, a California research firm, shows how facilities can [...]

By |2022-12-01T11:13:12-05:00December 1st, 2022|nursing homes|0 Comments

How Covid-19 Affected Those Nursing Homes Residents Who Didn’t Die

We know how the Covid-19 pandemic killed older adults. We are still learning about its other effects on seniors. And the picture is both complex and often difficult to look at. A new study by Michael Barnett of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues (paywall) finds that residents of nursing homes with active cases of [...]

By |2022-09-15T10:00:54-04:00September 15th, 2022|nursing homes|0 Comments

Are Critics of Private Equity Nursing Home Ownership Living In The Past?

It has become popular among many Democrats to call for investigations of nursing home ownership by private equity firms. But industry experts tell me that, increasingly, big investors in senior services are abandoning nursing facilities in favor of the far more lucrative home health business and, in some cases, private-pay senior housing. And the shift isn’t just happening with private [...]

By |2022-04-27T15:01:16-04:00April 27th, 2022|nursing homes, Uncategorized|1 Comment

A Blue-Ribbon Panel Calls Nursing Home Care “Ineffective, Inefficient, Fragmented, And Unsustainable”

A blue-ribbon panel of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a scathing report on the state of nursing homes in the US. Operators, owners, regulators, and payors all are failing patients and residents, the report said. “The way in which the United States finances, delivers, and regulates care in nursing home settings is ineffective, inefficient, fragmented, [...]

By |2022-04-06T17:10:28-04:00April 6th, 2022|nursing homes|0 Comments