NO ROOM AT THE INN FOR THOSE ON MEDICAID
- From: redpoet <redpoet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:28:02 -0800
NO ROOM AT THE INN
Oread Daily http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/
The sort of thing described in the article below really gets my dander
up.
Older Americans deserve far better treatment then they are getting at
some assisted living center in Washington state. Residents, their
families, and loved ones got the word out of the blue. The Milwaukee-
based parent company Assisted Living Concepts Inc., which owns
Victoria House in Port Townsend, would no longer honor Medicaid for
nine residents there. Nine human beings who are just trying to live
out their lives as best they can are to be tossed out of the place
they call home. It may not be a home you are I would like to be living
in right now, but it is a home all of us might someday find ourselves
fighting to stay in.
You know I don't much care who is at fault, the state, the feds, the
company, whoever. It doesn't much matter to me. What matters to me is
the lack of respect and care for those who cared for all of us which
this action demonstrates.
It happens all the time.
My mom had Alzheimer's Disease. After my father died, she lived alone
in the place they'd called home since the late 60s. I lived a few
miles away. My sister lived in another city. I quit my day job, spent
a considerable amount of time with her, and was able to keep her in
her in that home as long as humanly possible. Probably too long.
Finally the time came when it was just too dangerous. The possibility
for any subsidized long term in home care was not there.
Now maybe you will argue that one of us should have taken her into our
home and continued her care there. But that is a personal decision and
we decided another way. Neither of us felt that was a safe or
reasonable option anymore. We did find a very nice place (see picture)
that specialized in caring for people with Alzheimer's near where my
sister lived. She visited mom every single day for hours on end. It
cost just about everything my folks had saved in a lifetime of work
for mom to be there. She was fortunate to have some savings to make
the payments necessary for more than a year. Many don't have that
option.
As the time approached when the money was running out and she'd have
to shift to medicaid coverage, the place let us know there wouldn't be
a bed available. They had only a very few for medicaid patients. Not
all nursing homes even accept medicaid. Many others restrict the
number of Medicaid "beds" in the nursing home. That was the case here.
She had to move out to another facility.
The new place mom went wasn't bad, but the last thing a person with
Alzheimer's needs is to be moved.
She died not much later.
We, the people, should do something about this. It isn't right.
The following is from the Peninsula Daily News (Port Angeles, WA).
Elderly face critical change of rules at PT center
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND - At 96, legally blind and nearly deaf, Luella Campbell
had every expectation of living her final days in the Victoria House
assisted living center.
Her son, Doug Campbell of Port Townsend, expected to continue visiting
her in the senior living community of 39 units on Discovery Road.
"The doctor told me I should put her in a place where she wouldn't be
moved again," he said, remembering when he placed his mother there in
February 2006.
"So it was paramount that I not move her again."
He said that the facility's former director assured him that Medicaid
would pay for his mother's care if her own money ran out.
That was before the assisted living center's most recent residence
director, Wayne Pattison, got the word on Nov. 1 that the Milwaukee-
based parent company Assisted Living Concepts Inc., would no longer
honor Medicaid for nine residents, including Luella Campbell.
Only private pay residents are to be accepted after that date.
The company's action at Victoria House does not affect Medicaid-
covered residents at Assisted Living Concept's Prairie Springs center
in Sequim or Laurel Park in Port Angeles, said Laurie Bebo, company
president.
Pattison cited the Washington Center for Assisted Living's written
position that the state "shortchanges assisted living care" when it
comes to Medicaid.
"There's nothing personal with this," he said. "This is just
business."
Doug Campbell said it's an extremely personal business.
He watched painfully as his mother's $70,000 life savings dwindled in
18 months, while she paid nearly $4,000 each month for her care.
Threatened with the possibility of eviction, she had to seek Medicaid.
Her son vehemently opposes moving the residents in their twilight
years, especially his mother.
"I am concerned it will be too much of a shock for her," Doug Campbell
said.
He also doesn't want his mother moved hundreds of mile away to a
company facility in Kelso, about 200 miles south of Port Townsend.
"I check in with her at least three times a week, but I can't do that
if it's in Kelso," said Campbell, a Tacoma native who has lived in
Port Townsend since 2000.
"It might as well be on the moon some place."
Campbell plans to contact Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, this week
to seek legislative help for people like his mother.
Campbell and others in Port Townsend are planning a 1 p.m. Saturday
protest in front of Victoria House.
Help available
Kevin Krueger, the state's Department of Social and Health Services
regional administrator for Home and Community Services, said help is
available.
"We're just sad about this situation, and we're going to be working
with the residents affected by this situation, and will try our best,"
Krueger said.
He refers the families of those in need at Victoria House to see the
agency's Web site at http://www.adsa.dshs.wa.gov/pubinfo/benefits/
medicaid.htm.
"They need to contact a DSHS home and community services case worker
or nurse assigned to their facility," Krueger said.
"Our responsibility in the process is to help Medicaid clients in need
of care to find placements for their needs."
Pattison said the facility is already in the process of relocating
several of the residents.
Bebo said that Assisted Living Concepts discontinued honoring
Washington state's Medicaid program at Victoria House because it
covers only assisted living care residents.
Residents in need of dementia care or skilled nursing care, she said,
require at least five hours of direct supervision a day, compared to
about two hours a day under assisted living.
"They'e demanding that we would take care of these patients, and we're
saying, 'No, it's too much of a risk,' " Bebo said.
The Victoria House staff of about 20 is trained only for the assisted
living care level.
"These people are no longer safe in our environment because they
require far more care than we can provide, and are a risk to our
employees," Bebo said
Doug Campbell said that his mother does not fall into the dementia or
nursing skill level categories.
She can still move around quickly on her walker and is capable of
bathing herself in a shower, he said.
Another remarkable fact about his mother, he said, is that she does
not take any medications.
Victoria House has been accepting Medicaid payments since Victoria
House opened 10 years ago, according to Bebo.
"Unfortunately, the state disagreed about moving these folks on, and
it basically comes down to the cost of the state," Bebo said.
The state Medicaid waiver program pays about $65 a day for assisted
living, compared to $110 a day for skilled nursing care.
"Medicaid amounts to about 65 percent of what we charge," Bebo said.
Pattison agreed, saying, "It doesn't help a corporation that's trying
to stay viable."
WCAL, the state's residential-care advocacy organization, calls for
the Legislature to boost daily reimbursement for Medicaid recipients
to $71.44 from $59.58.
.
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