Personal Injury News & Developments

Medicare recently finalized and implemented new payment rules that will impact the bottom line for skilled nursing facilities. Many of them are struggling to put the new rules into place in their business, and the regulations are changing the way that nursing homes provide care for their residents. The skilled nursing facility has already been criticized for putting profits first, and the new Medicare program threatens to make this even worse.

Based on the new reimbursement rules, nursing homes have less incentive to give extensive therapy to residents since it will impact the facility’s bottom line. This may lead to an overall deterioration of the condition of the average nursing home resident who depends on therapy to maintain their health and well-being.

On October 1, 2019, Medicare finalized a new program called the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM). Previously, Medicare reimbursements were determined based on therapy minutes. Now, the basis for reimbursement is the patient’s condition as well as their anticipated needs during their stay. Under the new rules, nursing homes must determine the level of care that is necessary for a patient and will then have to deliver care in accordance with the resident’s needs. The facility will have to first determine the resident’s needs and then must make sure not to overdeliver care.

More than two-thirds of the states in the nation mandate that an inspection of an assisted living facility or nursing home occur every 18 months. However, California has long believed inspecting these facilities once every five years is adequate enough, but might consider conducting a study to determine if annual inspections are necessary. The state’s lack of tighter inspection schedules seems to highlight much bigger issues concerning the deterioration of regulating facilities in business to help the elderly, disabled and ill.

Assisted living businesses, providing day-to-day assistance and housing to the elderly, disabled and ill, are one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S. The industry provides a variety of housing solutions for its residents to live independently. However, recent publications and television programs have shed new light concerning the industry, where many of the nation’s less able to entrust their lives.

Deplorable Conditions

The public always reacts with shock upon learning that another helpless nursing patient was sexually assaulted by the person paid to provide his or her case. What the public is oblivious to, however, is just how common this occurrence has become and why it is so important to take every precaution possible before trusting others with the safety of those who you hold dear. We would all like to believe that the nursing home administrators, health inspectors and government agencies are working diligently on behalf of the victims of these heinous crimes, but many of the victims are deprived of a voice, and the perpetrators walk free.

How Nursing Homes and Authorities are Turning a Blind Eye to the Issue

It is terrifying to think that our loved ones are vulnerable to the whims of sexual predators when they are in their weakest state. Thousands of nursing home patients find themselves with medical conditions or injuries that make it impossible for them to fight back when caregivers, other residents or even their friends or family members commit unthinkable acts toward them. We would like to believe that steps are being taken to prevent the abuse and to bring justice to those who commit these deeds.