KENTUCKIANS FOR NURSING HOME REFORM

“A non-profit organization dedicated to the welfare of the “Forgotten Kentuckians”

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NEWSLETTER

February 25, 2008

 WHERE ARE WE?

The 2008 state legislature is more than halfway through, but little has happened in the way of nursing home reform.  There are four nursing home reform bills sitting in the House Health and Welfare Committee waiting to be passed.

They are:

House Bill 109 – This is the bill that would set minimum staffing standards for nursing homes.  It is important to know that it does not tell nursing home operators how to staff their facilities.  What is does is set a safety net below which no nursing home can go, thus endangering the health and safety of their residents.  Rep. Carl Rollins II, D-Midway, in the main sponsor of the legislation.

House Bill 222 – This bill would require that the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services publicizes the results of nursing home inspections by putting them on their Web site and by notifying newspapers and other media in the service area of the nursing home about the problems.  This bill was introduced by Rep. Jim Allen, D-Louisville.

House Bill 589 – This bill would also have the Cabinet for Health and Family Services place on their Web site the details of who owns each nursing home and where they can be contacted.  This has been a recurring problem for residents and their families who want to get their complaints heard by the top people.  Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, D-Lexington, introduced this bill.

House Bill 108 – It sets stiffer penalties on nursing homes if they are caught with problems caused by inadequate staffing.  Rep. Rollins sponsors this bill, too. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Here are three things you can do to help get these bills passed:

1. Call toll free 1-800-372-7181 and leave a message at this legislative hotline for your legislator.  How do you find out who your legislator is?  Call your county clerk’s office and they will tell you.  Everyone has one senator and one representative representing them in the legislature.  They will listen to you because you can vote for or against them when they run for re-election.  Just tell them to support the four bills above. 

2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.  Tell why you support these bills and about the experiences you had in nursing homes.  Get your friends at church and work to also write letters (and make calls).

3.  Call your local radio station talk show and tell the show host why you think nursing home reform is needed and ask the listeners to call in support of the four bills.

4. We will be sending you a petition to circulate among your friends asking them to sign in support of HB 109.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

In a word, NOTHING, if we don’t tell our story about the problems in nursing homes.  Most of the legislators have not had a loved one in a nursing homes, so they do not know the problems with, for example, insufficient staffing.  But you have.  And you can tell them what you experienced or are experiencing with a loved one.   Most legislators are so taken up with budgets, gaming bills, and a host of so-called “big” issues that they pay little attention to the plight of the 23,000 Kentuckians in nursing homes.  So you have to get their attention and ask them to go to work for all of us.   Like so many of you tell us all the time, “If you haven’t been there, you just don’t know how bad it can be.”   But you have been there, so be the eyes and ears of legislators who have not.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUV?

We have reported many times in this newsletter that when he was running Gov. Steve Beshear said he was solidly behind nursing home reforms.  But what has he done after getting elected, something we helped him to do?  So far, he has had his aides listen to us, but as far as action, nothing has been done yet.  As you read in the newspapers, the governor is up to his ears in getting a gaming bill and budget passed.  That has diverted his attention from lots of issues.  But we still have hope that Steve Beshear will come through and lead the effort in Frankfort on nursing home reform.  Stay tuned.  We will let you know….. and it wouldn’t hurt if you wrote him a letter or e-mail and reminded him that he promised to help.

CAN LEGALIZED GAMING HELP US?

YES, if it is set up in the right way.  We need the allocation of what the state brings in from legalized gaming to be carefully spelled out in a constitutional amendment.  The governor has said that he will allocate 20 percent of the proceeds to health care, some of it for long-term care.  That’s good, but it needs to be more specific.  We propose that the money go partially to a fund that would support incentives for nursing homes to staff properly.  A rewards program.  But it needs to be all spelled out before citizens vote on the ideas.  And it needs to be in the constitutional amendment so that it cannot be changed every year on the whim of the General Assembly.  Remember the push to get a state lottery?   That was sold as if it were going to help education.  Did it?  No.  The money goes to the general fund where it is used on the whim of lawmakers.  We don’t what that to happen to a golden opportunity to help nursing home reform.  Contact the Governor now, and tell him that.

SHORT STUFF

●                     Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, is chairman of the House Health & Welfare Committee.  The veteran legislator has seen bills on minimum staffing standards brought to his committee over and over in recent years, and they never go anywhere.   Rep. Burch wants to find out if the reason for the impasse is the lack of cooperation between nursing home industry leaders and advocates for reform.  So he has decided to break that  impasse by organizing a meeting between representatives of the industry and advocates.  “I don’t want some big meeting,” he said, “maybe four or so representatives from each side.”  No date set yet, but we will let you know.

●                      The Kentucky AARP says it supports House Bill 222 (see above) but so far has not responded to requests to support the other nursing home reform bills.

●                     When nursing home operators tell you they don’t have enough money to hire more staff, tell them this:  In the fourth quarter of last year, Kindred Healthcare earned $16.3 million in profits….. and Extendicare reported its profits in the fourth quarter had gone up to $10.5 million in profit.  Both of these nursing home giants have facilities in Kentucky.

●                      In the state fiscal year 2007, nursing home ombudsmen handled more than 4,000 complaints from residents and others statewide.  Of course, the biggest category of complaints was failure to respond to requests for assistance, followed by complaints on the administration of medications, personal hygiene, and food service. 

●                      Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, has introduced a bill that would reorganize the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.  Senate Bill 133 calls for a board to run the agency and to hire the chief executive officer.  The governor would head the board and name the secretary from three suggested persons.  Cabinet officials said that they are “neutral” on the bill as introduced.

●                      Another rumor that went around Frankfort recently was that the Department for Aging and Independent Living was going to be eliminated.  It is in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and a spokesman there said that the rumor is not true.  However, a source said that the executive order establishing the department expires this coming July, and that “the existence of DAIL is in jeopardy.”

●                      Down in Florida, they are having trouble, too, with paying nursing home Medicaid costs.  In fact, the industry down there says some Florida facilities may have to shut their doors.  Florida has minimum staffing standards like those being proposed in Kentucky, and the industry leaders are asking state officials to give them “flexibility” on mandated standards if they want the facilities to have any chance of surviving.  That would mean going back to the old staffing ways.

●                      The Money Follows the Person program, where nursing home residents on Medicaid can leave the nursing home and have their way paid by the government to live at home or in the community, seems to be stalled.  As far as we know, not a single person has followed the money.  Problem seems to be a series of bureaucratic mix-ups between the state and feds.

●                      A bill to improve the transparency and accountability of nursing homes has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, and Sen. Herb Kohl, D-WI.   It is Senate Bill 2641, and the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform says “it is the first comprehensive nursing home reform bill since the Nursing Home Reform Act OBRA ’87.   Some of what this bill would do is taken care of in HB 222 and HB 589 now before the Kentucky General Assembly.  By the way, no sign yet of our two U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning being co-sponsors of the bill.

WHERE YOU CAN SOUND OFF

We get so many calls and letters from people who are encountering difficulties in nursing homes. Well, now there is a blog where you can share your experiences in a nursing home with others. Just go to

 http://nursinghomereality.wordpress.com/

The new blog is the creation of Louisvillian Dave Poland, one of our members, and we encourage you to use it. Note that, as usual, you do not want to use your name or the name of the nursing home or staff in what you write.

LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS

In it for the money….

--  Nursing Homes in Kentucky are worse then they have ever been!
The staff knows when the state is coming to inspect, and they even have codes and words they say to warn other employees.   It is the same thing over and over again, the majority are in it for the money.   Less staffing means more money in the owner’s pocket. People need to wake up and open their eyes and look around in the nursing homes.