Iowa nursing homes feeling budget pinch

[TexasTowelie]

As the population increasingly ages, government programs that many rely on to pay the high cost of long-term care are not keeping pace and even then sometimes get delayed — often leaving nursing homes struggling to make ends meet.

In Iowa — especially rural Iowa — the situation is worsened by the state’s controversial privately run Medicaid operation, which nursing home officials say has increased the number of contested payments and left the homes holding the bag while the cases are under appeal.

The cost of nursing home care averaged $82,000 a year nationally in 2016, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And Medicaid — instead of private insurance — is the largest payer for the care, accounting for 62 percent of the share.

In Iowa, more than 400 nursing homes accept patients who pay through Medicaid or Medicare, the government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor, a federal database shows.

Read more: http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-nursing-homes-feeling-budget-pinch-20180113

[Zoonart]

1. That $82,000 number is low.especially If you live on either coast.

In NJ, cost my family $144,000 a year and $36,000 up front, non refundable out of pocket with no help, for Dad. He was in the home for three years.
The home was wonderful and very clean, but by no means posh or modern.

I have long contended that the American people will get real when Mom and Dad or Grandpa or Grandma get dropped off in the driveway because
Medicaid has been cut and there is no money to keep them in the home.

Something has got to change for the better, This is how the middle class is being destroyed. Inheritance is what created the middle class and the loss of it for future generations, because it has been drained down for elder care is, what is destroying it.

[exboyfil]

2. Iowa has filial responsibility laws

I think it is time for those to be whipped out.

252.2 Parents and children liable.
The father, mother, and children of any poor person, who is unable to maintain the poor person's self by labor, shall jointly or severally relieve or maintain such person in such manner as, upon application to the board of supervisors of the county where such person has a residence or may be, they may direct.