choosing a nursing home

Changes To Nursing Home Quality Measures

Published on: October 17, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

Improve Nursing Home Care

Nursing Homes Cited for Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Now Highlighted with “STOP” Icon on Government Website

In response to a recommendation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), The Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it will now be easier for consumers to identify nursing homes and long-term care facilities with instances of non-compliance related to abuse. To do so, CMS is rolling out a warning icon strategy to highlight facilities that meet the following criteria:

Facilities cited for abuse where residents were found to be harmed (Scope/Severity of G or higher) on the most recent standard survey, or on a complaint survey within the past 12 months;

U.S. Nursing Homes Lack Disaster Preparedness

Published on: September 19, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home neglect

Nursing Home’s Failed Disaster Response Resulted in 12 Resident Deaths

Four former employees at the Florida nursing home plagued with power outages from Hurricane Irma will be held responsible for the 12 residents who died from heat-related injuries and illnesses in 2017. The deceased were all residents at Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills and ranged in age 57 to 99.

The employees, of which three were nurses and one a facility administrator, failed to do their basic duty to protect life and never dialed 911 for evacuation help. The company responsible for restoring power to the home released a statement that “those customers who have electricity dependent medical needs should call 911 if they are without power and in a life-threatening situation.”

8 Questions For Your Next Nursing Home Visit

Published on: September 10, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home attorneys

8 Things You Can Ask During a Routine Nursing Home Visit

Everyone hopes that your family has made the right choice in transitioning a loved one to the best Illinois nursing home that will meet their specific care needs and keep them safe. But validating that best home quality doesn’t just happen before you decide to place them there. Ongoing evaluations of a facility’s ability to give the constant care and supervision will be necessary, so your loved one will not be found neglected, abused, or forgotten.

Before making any nursing home visits to see a loved one, we often advise family members to consider taking time to research the latest inspection reports and prepare questions for nursing home staff to answer that could help reveal any mistreatment.

Medicaid Delays Leave Another Illinois Nursing Home Bankrupt

Published on: August 28, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home closures

Delays by Illinois’s Medicaid Program Creates Ongoing Demise of Non-Profit Nursing Home Operator and Its Former Residents

It has been nearly 12 months since Pleasant Hill Village in Girard was forced to close citing a lack of Medicaid funds and backlog of the payment reimbursement process as the cause. Last year, the state of Illinois admitted to the multi-million Medicaid eligibility delay that makes it difficult for long term care coverage applications to be processed and payments made to Illinois skilled nursing facility operators. Pleasant Hill Village is now declaring bankruptcy on the disruptions and inability to pay debts and vendors, according to a report by The State Journal-Register.

Here is a recap of the August 16, 2019 news article:

List of Illinois Nursing Homes That Violate Safety and Rights Of Residents

Published on: August 27, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

quarterly violator report

Illinois Nursing Homes Named in Second Quarter Violators Report By IDPH

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has released its second Quarterly Report of Nursing Home Violators for 2019. This report dates April 2019 thru June 2019 and highlights 113 Illinois facilities cited for violations of the Nursing Home Care Act, a statute that provides nursing home residents and their families with the assurance that proper and safe care will be received.

Facilities with violations in quarter two of 2019 include:

Medicaid Residents Struggle To Receive Quality Care

Published on: August 5, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

Hole torn in a dollar bill with medicaid text

Nursing Home Residents on Medicaid Suffer Most

Most whose financial situation would be characterized as low income and need to remain in a nursing home for longer than expected, Medicaid will quickly become the primary payer for their long-term care. Designed as a public assistance program for individuals with limited financial support, Medicaid funds a person’s physician visits, hospital, and long-term care, drugs, medical equipment and transportation, and other medical services.

Investigative Reporting Uncovers Problems With Nursing Home Ownership

Published on: July 26, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

poor elder care

Nursing Home Chain Failures Highlight a Greater Need for Ownership Regulation and Closer Government Review

Some of the most troubling elder abuse and neglect stories stemmed from nursing home private ownership in the U.S. recently emerged thanks to an NBC News investigation featuring a man named Joseph Schwartz and his responsibilities over nursing home and long-term care facility chain, Skyline Healthcare. The mogul swiftly built his empire out of a small New Jersey office and then across the Midwest. It failed miserably leaving life-long pain and suffering for more 7,000 elderly Americans in more than 100 facilities in 11 states.

Massachusetts: Schwartz told staff there was no more money to fund all of his nursing homes or to pay them. The care team was buying toilet paper with personal funds to help residents. Patients were left for days in their feces due to staffing cuts and no one to help them. When some of the homes closed, 60 residents had nowhere to go, and family members were left uninformed of their loved one’s displacement. In March of 2019, the final three former Skyline Healthcare nursing homes in Massachusetts were closed and placed in receivership after Schwartz agreed to surrender licenses.

Long-Term Care Costs Continue To Skyrocket

Published on: July 25, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

long term nursing home care

How Does the Rising Cost of Nursing Home Care Impact Residents?

About three-quarters of Americans 65 and older will need to use a nursing home at some point, but only a small fraction will have coverage via long-term care insurance or Medicare and Medicaid to help cover the enormous and growing expense. A study published on June 20, 2019, by Georgetown University Medical Center shows:

Nursing home prices from 2005 through 2010 consistently outpaced growth in consumer healthcare prices.

Where Are The Nursing Home Nurses?

Published on: July 17, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

nursing home neglect attorneys

New Study Shows Majority of Nation’s Nursing Homes Fail to Meet RN Staffing Requirements

Harvard and Vanderbilt medical schools recently put researchers to the task of examining payroll records from over 15,000 U.S. nursing homes, revealing the staggering truth about registered nurse (RN) staffing. Three-fourths of the nation’s nursing homes never meet federal staffing expectations for registered nurse staffing, and RNs are missing from such facilities on the weekends.

Health Affairs published the study in its July issue in which co-author David Grabowski, a professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard, said that the conclusions based on a year’s worth of newly logged payroll data, could present much more significant issues in elder care today and well into the future.

Resident Violence In Nursing Homes

Published on: July 7, 2019 | Levin & Perconti

resident violence

Nursing Home Blames “Limited Resources” for Multiple Acts of Resident-on-Resident Violence

A facility located in Aurora, Colorado and operated by Renew, First Phoenix-Aurora of Wisconsin, and Peregrine Administration of Colorado is again at the center of a violent resident-on-resident legal case involving a 92-year-old resident who was found beaten by another individual who she shared the facility with. According to reports of the lawsuit, the woman with dementia was sitting in her wheelchair, in a hallway, when the assault occurred and now suffers from anxiety and other recurring medical complications. Attorneys are seeking more than $100,000 in damages for the injured woman and her family.

The victim was failed by staff and administrators who say they don’t have the resources to keep a known violent resident, who continues to harm others, away from those who live there. Many of Renew’s residents are living with Alzheimer’s and dementia and not able to speak up or acknowledge the abuse for themselves and remain dependent on others to keep them safe and protected from such abuse.