Feds launch program to help nursing homes

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- At the same time the federal government is cutting payments for Medicare patients in nursing homes, it is launching a new program to improve care in those centers.

The federal Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services will roll out its "Nursing Home Quality Initiative" on Tuesday in a series of news conferences around the nation, including one in Las Vegas set for 3 p.m. at Silver Hills Health Care Center on Buffalo Drive.

The program's aim is to help nursing homes improve care for residents who suffer from pain, delirium, depression, pressure ulcers and loss of everyday functions. It will also provide the public information on how to choose a nursing home.

HealthInsight, a private firm, will run the program in Nevada that will conduct voluntary inspections of nursing homes to look for deficiencies and offer advice before state inspections. It also will facilitate information sharing among nursing homes.

Charles Perry, executive director of the Nevada Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes in Nevada, said he was "fairly excited about this. Finally the government has said there is a need to get a mechanism to help with these problems. "

It may "cut down on some of the negativity" in the state inspections that report deficiencies in the nursing centers, he said.

But at the same time, Perry said, the Medicare rate for nursing homes was reduced by $35, or 10 percent, per patient per day effective Oct. 1.

"(The nursing home industry) fought it tooth and nail," he said.

Noting that the reimbursement rates are being lowered but the government wants increased quality, Perry said, "I think there is something wrong with that. It's more of the same stuff we've been used to for a long time."

Medicare pays for only a limited amount of time in a nursing home. In Nevada the average is less than 30 days in which Medicare picks up the tab, Perry said. Then patients must rely on private insurance or Medicaid, a state-federal program.

Nevada Medicaid raised its rates 18 percent to 19 percent in October 2001. But a planned increase of 4.3 percent for July 1 was scrapped because of budget problems in state government.

Another service of the federal Nursing Home Quality Initiative is a website that gives consumers information on nursing homes individually and by state.

The website, medicare.gov, directs consumers to places where they can learn more about nursing homes and the results of the most recent inspection and the deficiencies.

For example, the website tells consumers that according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the average number of deficiencies in a nursing home in Nevada is 12 compared to the national average of seven.

Lisa Jones, a health facility surveyor for the state Bureau of Licensure and Certification in Las Vegas, said one reason for that higher-than-average number is that states in the West tend to report more deficiencies in the nursing homes than in other states.

The idea, she said, is to catch problems early before they become serious. Outside of the West, Jones said, the reported deficiencies are more serious.

Nancy Whitman, director of business development for HealthInsight in Las Vegas, said many of the problems can be cured without additional money.

For example, she said, HealthInsight will be able to give advice on policies for restraint of patients. And there will be sessions in which nursing home representatives can come together to share how they might solve a problem that is common to all of them, she said. What the program will not do is address a chronic staffing problem that nursing homes face because of a nursing shortage, Perry said. Nevada, he said, is 50th in the nation among states in the number of registered and licensed nurses per 100,000 population.