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) [...]
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 [...]
It is time to change the rules: If you want to work around vulnerable older adults. You must be vaccinated. For their safety. For yours. And for the safety of your own family. Eight months after the vaccine was made widely available to health care workers, only about 60 percent of nursing home staff has been vaccinated against COVID-19. We [...]
As of Monday, only about 22 percent of the covid-19 vaccine doses that have been distributed for use in long-term care facilities have made their way into the arms of residents and staff. As has been well documented, these residents—nearly all with pre-existing medical conditions and functional and cognitive impairment-- are the most vulnerable to serious illness and death from [...]
With great fanfare, President Trump announced yesterday that his administration would deliver about two weeks’ worth of masks to nursing homes by the Fourth of July . And he’d stand up a commission to study quality and safety in nursing homes. All just in time to celebrate May as “Older Americans Month.” The masks apparently are going only to nursing [...]
Faced with growing pressures from payors, rising costs, the need to replace old buildings, increased competition from other forms of residential care, and shrinking demand from older adults who prefer to age at home, nursing homes are shutting their doors at a rapid pace. There still are more than 15,000 nursing facilities in the US—more, in fact, than McDonald’s franchises. [...]
What if real estate developers worked with on-site nurses and social workers to help frail older adults and younger people with disabilities stay in their apartments? Could they deliver--in a cost-effective way--social supports and care coordination that would improve the well-being of residents, reduce their health care costs, and benefit property managers? The answer is: They can, especially for older [...]
Are you ready for a new debate over what to call old people? This happens every few years: We’ve tried senior citizens, seniors, the elderly, elders, retirees, and even gerontos. Lately, “older adults” seemed to be catching on. That’s the phrase I mostly use though it is not entirely satisfying either. Older than who? Then there are the euphemisms for [...]
The Senate’s version of the House-passed American Health Care Act will almost certainly include a fundamental change in the way the federal government contributes to Medicaid. Over time, that new structure would result in deep cuts in the federal contribution to Medicaid and ultimately reduce long-term care benefits for frail older adults as well as younger people with disabilities. These [...]
Can the US do a better job of designing long-term care insurance? The answer is yes, according to two important new studies. With hard work and political will, we can develop better ways to help pay the enormous cost of long-term supports and services. The new research is a big step towards improved financing of these services. It did not find a “magic bullet.” But [...]