Health News
- Public Forum On Nursing Homes Set Friday At 2 In Lexington
A public forum on nursing-home care will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at the Lexington Senior Citizens Center on Nicholasville Road next to the University of Kentucky campus. The forum "may reveal what, if anything, is being done in Kentucky to improve care...
- Beshear To Study Nursing-home Staffing Minimums, Suggests Homes' High Liability Costs Are Related To Poorly Ranked Care
Responding to a letter from Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, which cited a low ranking for the state's nursing homes, Gov. Steve Beshear said he is "committed to taking steps toward improving the quality of care in Kentucky nursing homes,"...
- Large Percentage Of Patients With Dementia Given Drugs They Don't Need; See How Your Nursing Home Is Doing
Kentucky reporters can now see how the nursing homes in their area are treating patients with dementia. The Boston Globe has published a list of all the nursing homes in the country that shows the percentage of residents without psychosis or a related...
- Effort To Boost Oral Health In Nursing Homes Gets Tangled Up With Industry's Attempt To Insulate Itself From Lawsuits; Both Bills Die
A bill to get nursing-home residents better dental services "appears to be dead after the Senate added language from another bill designed to shield the nursing-home industry from litigation," Deborah Yetter reports for The Courier-Journal. House Bill...
- 18 Percent Of Kentucky Nursing Homes Had 10 Or More Deficiencies In July-sept.; 42 Exceeded State Average Of Six
State inspectors found 20 of Kentucky's nursing homes, 18 percent of the total, had 10 or more deficiencies during the third quarter of 2010. Kentucky nursing homes have an average of six deficiencies, according to Medicare's nursing-home...
Health News
Nursing home ombudsman program at risk because of 'callous and apparenly clueless' move by feds, advocate writes
The Kentucky long-term care ombudsman program is at risk in Kentucky due to a change in federal policy. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is "quietly telling some state aging leaders that by Jan. 1 they will no longer be allowed to use civil monetary penalty funds to help pay for the nursing home ombudsman program in their states," Bernie Vonderheide, president and founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, writes an op-ed piece in The Courier-Journal.
The civil penalties are assessed for violations in nursing homes. In Kentucky, the fund contains about $15 million. But if the move by CMS goes through, Kentucky "stands to lose more than a half million dollars a year from the CMP fund that has gone into supporting full-time ombudsmen in all of the 15 area development districts in the state," Vonderheide writes. "We are concerned about the callous and apparently clueless action by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It is obvious that the Washington bureaucrats who make decisions like this have never been in a nursing home and are oblivious to the needs of the people."
The civil penalties are assessed for violations in nursing homes. In Kentucky, the fund contains about $15 million. But if the move by CMS goes through, Kentucky "stands to lose more than a half million dollars a year from the CMP fund that has gone into supporting full-time ombudsmen in all of the 15 area development districts in the state," Vonderheide writes. "We are concerned about the callous and apparently clueless action by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It is obvious that the Washington bureaucrats who make decisions like this have never been in a nursing home and are oblivious to the needs of the people."
Nursing-home ombudsmen investigate alleged abuse and neglect in facilities, and visit residents. "In the average nursing home, surveys show that more than half the residents never have a visitor ? family member or friend ? except for one, and that's the ombudman," Vonderheide writes. "We can't lose our nursing home residents' best friends ? those angels of mercy, the ombudsmen." (Read more)
- Public Forum On Nursing Homes Set Friday At 2 In Lexington
A public forum on nursing-home care will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at the Lexington Senior Citizens Center on Nicholasville Road next to the University of Kentucky campus. The forum "may reveal what, if anything, is being done in Kentucky to improve care...
- Beshear To Study Nursing-home Staffing Minimums, Suggests Homes' High Liability Costs Are Related To Poorly Ranked Care
Responding to a letter from Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, which cited a low ranking for the state's nursing homes, Gov. Steve Beshear said he is "committed to taking steps toward improving the quality of care in Kentucky nursing homes,"...
- Large Percentage Of Patients With Dementia Given Drugs They Don't Need; See How Your Nursing Home Is Doing
Kentucky reporters can now see how the nursing homes in their area are treating patients with dementia. The Boston Globe has published a list of all the nursing homes in the country that shows the percentage of residents without psychosis or a related...
- Effort To Boost Oral Health In Nursing Homes Gets Tangled Up With Industry's Attempt To Insulate Itself From Lawsuits; Both Bills Die
A bill to get nursing-home residents better dental services "appears to be dead after the Senate added language from another bill designed to shield the nursing-home industry from litigation," Deborah Yetter reports for The Courier-Journal. House Bill...
- 18 Percent Of Kentucky Nursing Homes Had 10 Or More Deficiencies In July-sept.; 42 Exceeded State Average Of Six
State inspectors found 20 of Kentucky's nursing homes, 18 percent of the total, had 10 or more deficiencies during the third quarter of 2010. Kentucky nursing homes have an average of six deficiencies, according to Medicare's nursing-home...