Rules set for referral companies serving the elderly

Friday, Oct. 8, 1999 | 9:31 a.m.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, several social service agencies and the group that represents nursing homes said the regulations are necessary because the businesses as they were operating had too much leeway to exploit clients.

These services are basically "bounty hunters," Michael Clark, executive director of the Nevada Healthcare Association, told the board on Thursday.

But some group home operators and the owners of referral businesses said they are being unfairly targeted, and the regulations will disproportionately affect low-income people.

The regulations are the result of a law passed by the 1999 Legislature and set to take effect in January. Traditionally, the totally unregulated referral services made their profit by charging group homes for every resident placed in them. The future resident was not charged.

Referral services should "work for the potential resident, not the group home," said Judy Johnston, Clark County's assistant public guardian.

But under this old system, referrals were sometimes made based on the amount of money a particular group home was able to pay, rather than what was the best place for that patient, according to Johnston. She said she has also seen abuses that verge on criminal, including "inappropriate involvement with (the patient's property) and shuffling residents month to month to get new fees each month."

It is almost as if the lives of these seniors were "being bought and sold by the highest bidder," agreed Bobby Gordon of Clark County Social Services.

Under the new regulations, the resident or the patient, not the homes, would pay the referral service.

Such a system shuts out referrals as an option for the indigent and leaves them with nowhere to turn for help, said Theresa Brushfield-Owens, who has operated the Adult Care Consultants referral service for six years.