The Connecticut Elder Law Blog

Medicaid Expansion in the Health Care Debate

While the national debate surrounding the overhaul of the health care system has increasingly focused on whether or not to offer a "public option", there are many other important issues that have not received nearly as much of the public's attention.  One of those issues which is particularly important to my clients is the proposed expansion of the Medicaid system.

The current House bill would add 11 million people to the Medicaid program, triggering a $438 billion price tag over ten years with the federal government covering all of it until 2015, at which point federal funding would drop to 90% and the states would have to pick up the remaining 10%.  For some reason I'm having trouble finding what the current Senate bill says about Medicaid.

In any case, click here for an interesting report from Kaiser Health News, and here for Missouri's perspective on this.  Arizona doesn't sound thrilled about the Medicaid expansion here.

Comparing Nursing Homes on the Web

Once the decision is made that a loved one needs a nursing home, the selection of which particular nursing home is vitally important.  As you can imagine, the quality of care at nursing homes runs a rather wide spectrum.

A good starting point is actually the Federal government's Medicare website which has a nursing home comparison page.  The federal data there provides extensive information on Medicaid and Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities in your area.  They compare the quality of care for both rehab and long-term patients by including information on the percentage of patients whose walking has improved and patients with certain types of infections, such as bladder infections and bedsores. 

Please note that facilities with high percentages of bladder infections may indicate that they have trouble keeping their residents well-hydrated.  And unsually high percentages of bedsores hint at facilities not turning residents side-to-side in bed often enough and not keeping them clean.   

So, if you're looking for a nursing home for a loved one, or suspect you may need one in the foreseeable future then you may want to begin the search by taking a spin on the Medicare website.