Rule Makes It Tough to Meet Rising Demand for Long-Term Services

WASHINGTON — For more than 30 years, states have been finding new ways to care for aged and disabled Medicaid beneficiaries without confining them to nursing homes. The number of people living in skilled nursing facilities has declined significantly over the past decade, despite a marked increase in the number of elderly in the U.S.Starting this year, a new federal rule will require states to ensure that long-term care alternatives to nursing homes — such as assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, group homes and adult day care — work with residents and their families to develop individual care plans specifying the services and setting each resident wants. The overarching goal is to create a “homelike” atmosphere, rather than an institutional one and to give residents choices about their care.

Thousands to Moving From Nursing Homes Into Community Under Pact

An agreement filed Monday in a federal court in Texas means thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities now residing in nursing homes may be able to move into less restrictive settings in the community, a disability rights group announced.The result of a 2010 class-action suit filed by six plaintiffs — three from San Antonio — the two-year interim agreement requires the state to inform people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD, of alternatives to nursing homes, where they often don't belong and don't receive the type of services they need, said Garth Corbett, a senior attorney at the Austin-based Disability Rights Texas.

Justice Dept. Files Lawsuit Against Florida for Warehousing Children

Florida health care agencies have acted with "deliberate indifference to the suffering" of frail and disabled children by offering parents no "meaningful" choice but to warehouse their children in nursing homes along with elders, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a lawsuit against the state filed Monday.

Brain-Injured Suffer Major Treatment Gap

Larry Boswell sat slumped in a wheelchair. His sweatpants were soiled, his T-shirt soaked in saliva. Flies buzzed around his head.

He was able to walk when he arrived at Illinois’ Cobden Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in 2008, government records show, something he can’t manage now. Speech therapy for the 57- year-old ended shortly after he was admitted, according to a lawyer trying to persuade Medicaid to transfer him.
While much of what Boswell says is incomprehensible, he managed a clear “no” when asked if he wanted to stay where he was. Cobden officials didn’t respond to telephone calls.
Boswell is one of nearly 244,000 brain-injured people consigned to nursing homes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from U.S. Medicare and Medicaid statistics. He’s also on the front line in a national battle to get people like him out of facilities that aren’t equipped to care for them.

Nursing Homes See Younger Patients

FLORENCE, Ala. -- An analysis of federal data from the Department of Health and Human Services by National Public Radio found people between ages 31 and 64 comprise 14 percent of the nursing home population. That’s up from 10 percent a decade ago.
The trend is playing out in Alabama as well, according to Louis Cottrell, executive director of the Alabama Nursing Home Association.
"We are seeing younger residents who are either disabled or developmentally disabled coming to nursing homes," he said. "I'm afraid we're going to see that number grow."