Search Results for: nursing homes

Why Staff (Is All That) Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home (Not!)

May 14, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In all of my 23 years specializing exclusively in long-term care insurance (LTCi), the Houston Chronicle has done scant reporting on LTCi and long-term care planning. They’ve done a story on how to financially plan for aging and left out mentioning LTCi altogether. On the rare occasion they’ve made mention of LTCi they’ve gotten vital facts wrong.

In a city as large as ours, I’m very embarrassed about the Houston Chronicle’s dearth of coverage of LTCi, a subject that would help its readers. I believe New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, and many smaller cities than Houston, have had good coverage of LTCi lately. Houston still hasn’t.

In her recent Houston Chronicle column, “Why Staff Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home”, reporter Cindy George advises using various online tools to help you “shop” for a facility that won’t neglect or abuse your loved one. She makes this task sound as easy as, say, researching a computer or vacation online.

If you do the proper research, her article implies, your loved one won’t be subject to neglect, abuse, or the murders or beatings that have recently occurred at two Houston nursing facilities. Or maybe your loved one will be subject to just some abuse and neglect, but not beatings or murders? To accomplish this just use the tools she provides; it’s that easy.

Here’s what I wrote to her on my Facebook page:

“Cindy George of the Houston Chronicle, I know you’re trying to help by offering advice on how to choose a functional nursing home, in light of the recent nursing home violence we’ve had in Houston. Your advice may make readers feel good in the short term by giving them the impression there are decent odds they might have any control over the quality of their care if they cannot afford to pay for it. I would like to help add depth to your reporting and hope you will accept my invite to lunch or coffee.”

The problem with stories like “Why Staff Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home” is that it lulls people into believing doing correct facility research and shopping is all they’ll need to access quality long-term care. Responsible long-term care planning is not necessary. The government is there and will be there to pay for quality long-term care.

Search on this blog for “Nursing Homes” to learn a lot about why the government can’t – and won’t – pay for meaningful, adequate long-term care.

Government financing for long-term care is decreasing. Nursing home failures, neglect, abuse, tragedies, are increasing.

Nursing Home Murders: Connecting the Dots with Medicaid-Paid LTC

May 1, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

With permission from The Center for Long-Term Care Reform, I republish their Monday, April 28, 2014 post about my prior blog.

The reason I chose to cover the horrific nursing home murders still in the headlines here in Houston, is because there is a link between failing to plan responsibly for long-term care well in advance and tragic outcomes, whether or not they’re of the magnitude of the Lexington Place murders.

Many who can afford reasonably priced long-term care insurance simply won’t entertain it. They make excuses to avoid such conversations. It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have.

The horror and negligence that occurred at Lexington Place Nursing Home may be isolated (or maybe not since most of us choose to turn our heads away from this type of event). Even so, the importance of these posts is to understand that such events may be indicative of a widespread trend that’s just beginning.

I’ve chosen to cover these tragic murders because to me, they’re the tip of the iceberg. The industrialized warehousing of the indigent who need care will increase as our national debt grows, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements continue to drop, and the partisan stalemate in Washington continues. And this financial catastrophe is approaching at an increasingly rapid rate as government programs are deluged with unprepared Baby Boomers who need long-term care but did not plan for it when they were able to afford and obtain reasonably priced long-term care insurance (LTCi). Sadly, events like the Lexington Place murders may become more common.

This blog and the one before it are meant to educate. If these tragic posts help even one person wake up and decide to defer their purchase of a new flatscreen TV or more expensive car in favor of buying a reasonably priced LTCi policy, they’ll be worth it.

LTC E-Alert #14-014: The Nursing Home Murders and LTC News and Comment

Monday, April 28, 2014

Seattle –

LTC Comment: Did you see the news coverage last week about two nursing home residents bludgeoned to death by their roommate in Houston? We opted not to cover it then, but the story does illustrate an important point. Nursing homes, especially those in poorer areas, are heavily dependent on Medicaid which pays them less than the cost of providing the care. Generous Medicare reimbursements help to make up part of the shortfall (at least for now), but the nursing homes most heavily dependent on Medicaid resort to cutting caregiver staff to a minimum and paying extremely low wages in order to operate.

So what? Well, Honey Leveen, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Long-Term Care” and the Center’s Regional Representative in Houston, draws out the ramifications in her recent blog post here. We encourage you to read it and to follow her links to more of the background. Honey points out that the nursing home in which the murders occurred has “nearly all” Medicaid residents. She opines that inadequate revenue led to dysfunctional management which resulted in poor care and finally in this awful crime. She links to an earlier article she wrote for LifeHealthPRO questioning the value of “Partnership” policies that leave people dependent on Medicaid’s mostly nursing-home based care.

This is sad stuff, but information all LTCI producers should consider as they advise clients on long-term care planning.

“Police Say Nursing Home Resident Killed 2 With Arm of Wheelchair”

April 26, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

The breaking news that immediately seized my eye on the front page of the April 23, 2014 Houston Chronicle was, “Police say nursing home resident killed 2 with arm of wheelchair.”

The murders took place at Lexington Place nursing facility.

This is an article I wrote about Lexington Place. I’ve been there a few times and have toured it. The article was published in an insurance trade magazine in August, 2011.

What’s interesting is that hardly anyone ever comments on my blogs or online articles. This had been the case with all the articles I wrote for this magazine, except for this one, which described a few aspects of life inside Lexington Place. This particular article motivated many peers from all over the country to comment, all in positive ways. They all thanked me for telling the story straight.

According to my source, almost all of Lexington Place’s residents were/are Medicaid recipients. That means that Lexington Place was/is in a particularly precarious situation. Medicaid reimburses at rates that are beneath what it actually costs to provide care for nursing home patients.

If you search this website for “nursing homes”, you’ll find much factual information on why nursing homes are suffering. Essentially, most Medicaid-funded nursing facilities are the red and continue to suffer funding cuts.

Here, I opine: there is something about money being in short supply that causes businesses to panic. Then fear sets in. Then dysfunctional management occurs. This is what I believe occurred at Lexington Place.

I believe Lexington Place admitted people it probably shouldn’t have, in hopes of keeping its census high. If funding gets cut, a volume approach is often the remedy, whether this makes sense in the big picture, or not.

I believe, based on information I was given by a trustworthy former employee there, that Lexington Place is also woefully understaffed. That is what I was told, that’s what I reported in my August, 2011 story.

My question remains: if people complained about the murderer’s violent tendencies, why was his behavior not dealt with in a more reasonable manner?

The murderer bludgeoned his victims with the arm of a wheelchair. I presume the deaths were not sudden, but rather, drawn out in a process involving screaming, for quite a while. Where were the caregivers?

I think the answer to the above question must be screaming similar to that of the murder victims is a normal occurrence at Lexington Place.

Are You on the Hook for Mom’s Nursing Home Bill?

June 26, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

In an article that EVERY Boomer should read, “Are You on the Hook for Mom’s Nursing Home Bill?” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303506404577446410116857508.html), in the June 22, 2012 Wall Street Journal, Kelly Greene notes that “29 states have ‘filial support’ laws that could be used to go after patients’ adult children for unpaid long-term-care bills.” And although these laws have not been enforced in many states, “…Pennsylvania nursing homes have started routinely using the law to prod families into paying their elders’ bills or completing Medicaid paperwork on their behalf.” And it’s a good bet that other states will begin to use their laws as Medicaid funding dries up and nursing homes become increasingly desperate to cover their costs.

So just when you thought Mom and Dad would receive their long-term care (LTC) in a local nursing home at the federal government’s expense, you may be asked to ante up – conceivably for hundreds of thousands of those dollars that you were planning to support your comfortable retirement!

The answer, of course, is early planning. “The best defense against such laws, elder-law experts say, is planning,” Greene continues. ‘If your parents aren’t multimillionaires, then you need to get some advice way early, maybe when they’re 65,’ says Carolyn Rosenblatt, aSan Franciscomediator, elder-law attorney and registered nurse. ‘By the time they’re in their 80s, most people need some help. How would you pay for that?’

The best way to eliminate this potential problem entirely is to begin a discussion of LTC insurance with your parents when they reach their 50s or early 60s at the latest. And while you’re at it, you can begin planning to purchase your OWN LTC insurance so you don’t your children don’t have to suffer through the same emotional and financial stress in your later years.

Cuts in public funding cause increased nursing home admissions

May 8, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

Due to budget concerns, many states are cutting respite services, which provide temporary relief in the form of short-term home care workers, brief stays in residential facilities and adult day care centers, reports this April 30, 2012 article from McKnights Long-Term Care News.

These services, which are much less costly for families than skilled nursing facility stays, have been targeted by cash-strapped states.

Respite care often allows the elderly to delay or prevent being admitted to a nursing home.

These cuts will lead to more seniors being admitted to nursing homes. When people need long-term care and cannot afford to pay for it due to lack of responsible advance long-term care planning, they usually default to Medicaid. Each additional Medicaid long-term care recipient worsens budget shortfalls and crisis.

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Search Results for: nursing homes

Why Staff (Is All That) Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home (Not!)

Nursing Home Murders: Connecting the Dots with Medicaid-Paid LTC

“Police Say Nursing Home Resident Killed 2 With Arm of Wheelchair”

Are You on the Hook for Mom’s Nursing Home Bill?

Cuts in public funding cause increased nursing home admissions

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