For Profit Hellhole. I Mean, Health Care by SignyM

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For Profit Hellhole. I Mean, Health Care

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:49
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Wednesday, October 3, 2007 11:26 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

At Many Homes, More Profit and Less Nursing

... In the 12 months after a private investment firm bought Habana, regulators visited an average of once a month, often in response to residents’ complaints. After Habana was bought in 2002, its managers laid off workers and increased its occupancy. The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes. Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court. Regulators repeatedly warned the home that staff levels were below mandatory minimums. When regulators visited, they found malfunctioning fire doors, unhygienic kitchens and a resident using a leg brace that was broken.

“They’ve created a hellhole,” said Vivian Hewitt, who sued Habana in 2004 when her mother died after a large bedsore became infected by feces.

Habana is one of thousands of nursing homes across the nation that large Wall Street investment companies have bought or agreed to acquire in recent years. Those investors include prominent private equity firms like Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group.

As such investors have acquired 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 under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006. The Times analysis shows that, as at Habana, managers at many other nursing homes acquired by large private investors have cut expenses and staff, sometimes below minimum legal requirements.

...But private investment companies have made it very difficult for plaintiffs to succeed in court and for regulators to levy chainwide fines by creating complex corporate structures that obscure who controls their nursing homes....
When Mrs. Hewitt sued Habana over her mother’s death, for example, she found that its owners and managers had spread control of Habana among 15 companies and five layers of firms. As a result, Mrs. Hewitt’s lawyer, like many others confronting privately owned homes, has been unable to establish definitively who was responsible for her mother’s care.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/22/business/20070923_NURSING_GRAPH
IC.html#

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Always look upstream.

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Wednesday, October 3, 2007 11:51 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

I also read the article. I think two things should happen - a place with one serious complaint or violation of regulations should be put on notice, that complaint un-resolved or a second complaint or violation within 12 months the facility has to put a large warning sign about substandard care (like the health department restaurant rating system). Second, the business to whom the check is written is on the hook.

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"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007 8:57 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

REAL STORY

Quote:
Well we lost Dustin's SSI. Hubby got just enough of a raise for use to not qualify for SSI anymore. Now instead of being ahead with the new raise we are in the hole about $63.00 every month. Thanks to the taxes coming out of his check we are living on $63.00 less a month. We are now facing the decision to have to drop the kids off Blue Cross Blue Shield , because it's getting to were with losing the extra $63.00 per month we can't afford to keep it anymore. We also have IL. KidCare, so I guess we will have to depend soely on it.

I figured it up last night, if my hubby gets another raise next year we won't be allowed to have private insurance along w/the IL KidCare. SO I guess now would be the time to just drop the BCBS. Anyone else been in this boat or getting into this boat we are in?

We figured it up, that if we keep our private & lose KidKare next year, we could easily end up in major Medical bill Debt Hell. We really can't afford to get into more debt. We are already taking from Peter to pay Paul ,"if you know what I mean." Kidcare will cost us $25.00 per month for both kids. $5.00 for each doctor's visit, $3.00 or $5.00 for Rx drugs.

Our current BCBS has a $2000.00 family deductible, $500.00 RX deductible. Max. $5000.00 limit we'd have to pay for hospital or out patient services. Gosh that's $7500.00, we could never afford that! We really feel we are inbetween a rock in a hard place.

I really do not understand President Bush's thinking with him Vetoing the increase in funding for the SCHIP, (Children's health insurance). His comment on this was that he doesn't feel the goverment should be funding for insurance that Middle class families could already afford to pay for themselves. "well I don't know what Middle Class family he is referring to", because most of the people we know in our area are in the same boat. I think President Bush Has the Middle Class confused with the Upper Class.

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22013

And Hillary wants to shovel us into the maw. Good grief.

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Always look upstream.

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007 9:17 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

middle class => middle finger

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:49 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/08/attacking-graeme-frost/

Right Wing Launches Baseless Smear Campaign Against 12 Year Old Recipient Of SCHIP

Two weeks ago, the Democratic radio address was delivered by a 12-year old Maryland boy named Graeme Frost. Graeme told his story of being involved in a severe car accident three years ago, and having received access to medical care because of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. He said:

If it weren’t for CHIP, I might not be here today. … We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don’t have CHIP, and they wouldn’t get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt. I just hope the President will listen to my story and help other kids to be as lucky as me.

The right-wing immediately condemned Democrats for daring to put a human face on the SCHIP program at a time when Bush was proposing a “diminishment of the number of children covered.” Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) — who has posed with children to advance his own political agenda — claimed Graeme was being used “as a human shield.”

Conservatives have more recently turned their targets on young Graeme Frost himself. A poster at the Free Republic propagated information alleging that Frost was actually a rich kid being pampered by the government. Among other bits of information, the post by the Freeper “icwhatudo” asserts that Graeme and his sister Gemma attend wealthy schools that cost “nearly $40,000 per year for tuition” and live in a well-off home.

The smear attack against Graeme has taken firm hold in the right-wing blogosphere. The National Review, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Powerline, and the Weekly Standard blog have all launched assaults on the Frost family. The story is slowly working its way into traditional media outlets as well.

Here are the facts that the right-wing distorted in order to attack young Graeme:

1) Graeme has a scholarship to a private school. The school costs $15K a year, but the family only pays $500 a year.

2) His sister Gemma attends another private school to help her with the brain injuries that occurred due to her accident. The school costs $23,000 a year, but the state pays the entire cost.

3) They bought their “lavish house” sixteen years ago for $55,000 at a time when the neighborhood was less than safe.

4) Last year, the Frosts made $45,000 combined. Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined.

5) The state of Maryland has found them eligible to participate in the CHIP program.

Desperate to defend Bush’s decision to cut off millions of children from health care, the right wing has stooped to launching baseless and uninformed attacks against a 12 year old child and his family.

Right wing bloggers have been harassing the Frosts, calling their home numerous times to get information about their private lives. Compassionate conservatism indeed.

Digg It!

UPDATE: TP commenter Mr. Ed notes that Malkin visited the Frost’s home and business today. A coworker of Mr. Frost tells Malkin that the family is “struggling,” but she refuses to believe it.

UPDATE II: More from John Aravosis, Whiskey Fire, All Spin Zone, Matt Ortega, FDL, and Kos.

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"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."

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