"Goddard House nursing home a casualty of funding, changing times" by Peter Schworm |
Globe Staff, August 11, 2012
The wrenching news of Goddard’s closing stunned the approximately 115
residents and their families and will cost 135 workers their jobs. But
the demise of the 85-year-old facility, which needs an estimated $10
million in renovations, is in keeping with broad, long-term changes that
are transforming the elder-care field, specialists say.
The increase in assisted-living facilities, which offer more
independence than nursing homes, combined with a shift to
community-based care that allows elders to remain in their homes, have
caused a steady decline in the number of nursing facilities and the
share of elderly who live in them.
With fewer affluent residents choosing nursing homes and Medicaid
reimbursements persistently lagging behind costs, more long-term care
facilities nationwide are facing financial difficulties, particularly
those that mostly care for the poor.
“The financial model was Medicare and private care subsidizing
Medicaid losses,” said W. Scott Plumb, senior vice president of the
Massachusetts Senior Care Association, a trade group. “That’s just
falling apart.”
Medicare is the federal health insurance program for the elderly and
the disabled. Medicaid, a federal-state program, helps pay for health
care for the needy, the aged, and the disabled.
Nationally, the estimated shortfall in Medicaid reimbursements to
nursing facilities in 2009 topped $5 billion, a 2011 study for the
American Health Care Association found, and was projected to rise
sharply.
In Massachusetts, Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes have
been frozen for several years, a harsh blow to nursing homes where
nearly 70 percent of residents pay for care through Medicaid.
Given the scope of repairs needed at its South Huntington Avenue
facility, Goddard officials said they would have been forced to stray
from the organization’s mission of caring for low-income Boston
residents in a cost-efficient manner.
“It’s a tragedy,” Plumb said....
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