Republican Healthcare Plan

Profit before patients: Staffing problems plagued nursing homes before COVID

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It's all about the Benjamins:

The group has spent more than $30 million lobbying Congress and millions more through its state affiliates since 2010, according to a review of state and federal lobbying data by the Investigative Reporting Workshop.

The long-term care industry has long used its political influence to push against reforms that would have increased staffing requirements, training, transparency and oversight. Now, the industry is pushing for — and in some states, successfully passing — legislation to shield nursing home owners from lawsuits during the pandemic.

In the early 2000's my father succumbed to the latter stages of Alzheimer's, and we had to put him in long-term care. Most of the staff we dealt with were really good people, dedicated to easing burdens for their patients. But there was never enough of them on duty, especially after normal "business hours." And 2 out of the 3 facilities he was placed in had corporate headquarters in another state, so straightening out billing problems became a constant nightmare. My mom provided adult diapers to save money, but every month she was charged $500-$600 erroneously, and I had to make several calls to the headquarters each month to get that fixed. Back to the staffing problems:

The (mis)managed care of county jail inmates

A horrifying glimpse of what the NC GOP's Medicaid privatization might look like:

Earlier this year, a former inmate sued the county on claims that his medication wasn’t administered while he was incarcerated here or in a state prison, resulting in the amputation of his leg. On New Year’s Day, a man died of an apparent suicide within an hour of being booked into the jail.

ALAMANCE COUNTY contracts with Southern Health Partners Inc., of Chattanooga, Tenn., to provide medical and dental services to inmates. That company contracts nurses and physicians to work at the jail. A nurse is on duty at all times, Jones said.

After reading this story in my local paper, I decided to do some checking to see if our experiences with Southern Health Partners was unique. It wasn't. There have been numerous lawsuits filed by inmates (or their surviving family members) ranging from inadequate care to treatment that could be right out of the pages of a Dickens novel:

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