Long-Term Care

State fee for nursing homes gets another convert

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, February 15, 2007

Maryland was the latest state to propose a state fee for nursing homes-one that would boost Medicaid reimbursements and also allow facilities to hire more staff and buy new equipment, in theory. The state's Health and Mental Hygiene secretary, John M. Colmers, told the Baltimore Sun in February that Maryland should join the 32 other states that currently charge fees.

 

Those fees generally comprise up to 2% of operating income for nursing homes that have at least 45 beds. The money is matched by the federal government and funneled back to the facilities in the form of Medicaid payments, in effect giving the nursing homes twice what they paid in fees. Some observers questioned how private-pay residents would benefit, and also how officials would check that the money went toward staffing and equipment, not profit margins, the Sun reported.

 

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