Capitol Hill Watch - House Panel Approves Legislation That Would Invalidate Mandatory Binding Arbitration Provisions of Nursing Home Admission Contracts The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday by a 17-10 vote approved a bill (HR 6126) that would ban the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts, CQ Today reports (Stern, CQ Today, 7/30). The clauses require that people seeking to enter a nursing home and their family agree to waive the www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=53626

2008-07-31

Coverage & Access - Wall Street Journal Profiles New Nursing Home in San Francisco San Francisco plans to spend about $600 million to replace the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, an effort that 'bucks a tenuous trend across the country' to provide care to seniors in their homes or in assisted living facilities, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'A debate has long raged over www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=44735

2007-05-07

Coverage & Access - Fewer Elderly U.S. Residents Live in Nursing Homes, U.S. Census Reports About 7.4% of U.S. residents ages 75 and older lived in nursing homes in 2006, compared with 8.1% in 2000 and 10.2% in 1990, according to data released on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, USA Today reports. According to USA Today, the trend reflects the improved health of older adults and more health care www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=47811

2007-09-27

Coverage & Access - Nursing Homes Increasingly Use Arbitration To Avoid Lawsuits, Reduce Costs Nursing home residents and their families increasingly are 'giving up their right to sue over disputes about care, including those involving death, as the homes write binding arbitration into their standard contracts,' the Wall Street Journal reports. Under arbitration agreements, nursing home residents and www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=51480

2008-04-11

Coverage & Access - CMS Releases Quality Ratings for U.S. Nursing Homes CMS on Thursday will post online the quality ratings of 16,000 individual nursing homes across the U.S. based on a one- to five-star scale, USA Today reports (Appleby et al., USA Today, 12/18). The ratings are based on data from state inspections, reports on staffing and quality measures. The homes received www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=56173

2008-12-18

Coverage & Access - Nursing Homes Often Medicate Residents Without Psychosis 'In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals,' largely because nursing homes are 'giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia' -- conditions for which the drugs a www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=49205

2007-12-04

Coverage & Access - Many Nursing Being Acquired by Wall Street Investment Firms As Wall Street investment firms in recent years have acquired thousands of U.S. nursing homes, they have 'often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains,' but by 'many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=47701

2007-09-24

State Watch - Rhode Island Lawmakers Debate Gov. Carcieri's 'Global Medicaid Waiver' Rhode Island lawmakers are continuing to debate changes to the state's Medicaid program following a deal reached between Gov. Don Carcieri (R) and CMS, the AP/Boston Globe reports (AP/Boston Globe, 1/21). Under the 'global Medicaid waiver,' the state will limit Medicaid spending to $12.4 billion through 2013 www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=56558

2009-01-22

Coverage & Access - Some Nursing Homes That Repeatedly Provide Low-Quality Care Subject to Minimal Penalties, GAO Report Finds Nursing homes with repeated safety compliance problems usually face only minimal penalties from the federal government, according to a Government Accountability Office report, the New York Times reports. Congress established 'stringent' standards for nursing homes in 1987, but a 1998 GAO report found that nu www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=44422

2007-04-23

Administration News - CMS Lists Poorest-Quality Nursing Homes on Web Site in Effort To Encourage Improvements CMS on Thursday released a list naming 54 nursing homes in the U.S. that continually fail to meet safety and quality-of-care standards in their states, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The facilities are located in 33 states and the District of Columbia. All nursing homes included on the list were de www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=49119

2007-11-29