Health and Disability

from Aboutlawsuits.com:

Nursing home operator Extendicare faces a third class action suit,
this time filed on behalf of all residents of their nursing homes in
Wisconsin. Similar Extendicare class action lawsuits
have been filed in Washington and Minnesota, with all of the cases
alleging that the company places profits over patient care by admitting
residents that they are not properly equipped to handle.

The Wisconsin Extendicare lawsuit was filed Friday in the Circuit
Court for Milwaukee County by one resident, but seeks class action
status on behalf of all residents who have been treated at 26 different
nursing homes operated by Extendicare in the state.

Extendicare is one of the largest nursing home operators in the
United States and Canada, with as many as 226 homes in North America
and over 30,000 beds.

The lawsuit alleges that Extendicare fraudulently advertises
services that they are not capable of performing and admits ill
residents without hiring the necessary staff to provide even adequate
care.

from Market Watch:

A study released today from UnitedHealth Group's
Evercare(R) organization and the National
Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) finds that more than one third of Hispanic
households (36 percent) have at least one family member caring for an
older loved one --a larger percentage than all
U.S. caregiving households which is 21 percent (one in five), according
to the Evercare Study of Hispanic Caregiving in the U.S. The
study, the largest comprehensive look at Hispanic caregivers, also
revealed that caregiving caused a major change to the working situation
of Hispanics, which could have dramatic personal implications as the
current fiscal crisis continues to unfold in the United States.
Additionally, the emotional and physical tolls of caregiving might also
impact the local and national economies, given that more than eight
million Hispanics provide care to older loved ones nationwide.

from Nursing Home Administrator's Blog:

Nursing home administrators face an unexpected ethical (and legal)
dilemma when admitting new residents to skilled nursing care. The
Nursing Home Care Act undercuts a traditional notion of informed
consent in such a way that many residents may be admitted to a nursing
home without ever consenting to treatment, or having a meaningful
surrogate consent to their treatment. This is clearly an issue of
nursing/medical ethics, as well as a font of potential legal liability
for providing unauthorized care.

American health care law is predicated on the notion of patient
autonomous-direction. Within this notion exist a number of inter-linked
rights: the right to self-determination, the right to give consent
before treatment, the right to information forming the basis of consent
and many others. Curiously, in senior care, as in perhaps no other
major area of American health care law, the status of patient
autonomous direction, especially with respect to consent before
treatment, is less sacrosanct, the exceptions more numerous. This is
especially true in the legal quagmire of involuntarily placing adults
in nursing homes.

I am most familiar with the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act and it
will thus form the background of this discussion, but the Illinois Act
is not dissimilar to Nursing Home Care Acts in many other states, at
least inasmuch as the acts address the issue of involuntary admission.
Clearly involuntary admission of a resident to a nursing home presents
moral and ethical issues most families are not experienced in dealing
with, not to mention attendant feelings of guilt for the family members
and likely betrayal for the patient herself. However, for the health
care provider, the nursing home, the struggle is a balance between
determining the self-interest rights of the resident and the interests
in rendering care.

from PHI:

Economics writer Robert Kuttner has some advice for President-Elect Barack Obama in his new book Obama’s Challenge: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency.

Kuttner makes a strong case for professionalizing the human services
sector – jobs which are harder to outsource – to boost the U.S. economy.

Last week, he told NPR’s Fresh Air,
“All jobs taking care of America’s children and taking care of
America’s old people and taking care of America’s sick people, by
definition, these are jobs that have to be close to home.”

from the Urban Institute:

Who cares for the elderly and at what cost concern policymakers and
laypeople alike, for the Census Bureau predicts that more than 20
percent of the U.S. population will be older than 65 by 2050, compared
to just 12 percent in 2000. Intergenerational Caregiving, a
new book from the Urban Institute Press, reveals how social, cultural,
demographic, and financial circumstances shape care and support
arrangements for Americans as they age, as well as for family members
of all ages facing disability and special needs.

Editors Alan Booth, Ann C. Crouter, Suzanne M. Bianchi, and Judith
A. Seltzer collect the insights of more than a dozen economists and
sociologists, whose detailed essays highlight the issues that
legislators, program managers, and advocates must consider as America
grays. The book cites evidence that the advent of Social Security in
the 20th century improved the financial position of the elderly, whose
higher retirement incomes led to a sharp decline in the proportion of
aged parents living with their adult children. Income and housing
decisions likely would change again if, as one author speculates,
future adjustments to Social Security shrink benefits for retirees or
raise taxes on their adult children.

from JSonline:

A Milwaukee attorney filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against
Extendicare Homes that alleges the nursing home chain fraudulently
advertised its services and deliberately admitted more acutely ill
residents without hiring enough staff to properly care for them.

The
lawsuit alleges Extendicare violated the state's Consumer Protection
Act through false advertising that lured residents into believing they
would receive good care at nursing homes that were cited for health
violations by state regulators.

The
complaint also contends the company's "24/7 Extendicare Admission
Policy" was designed to automatically admit patients who have acute
medical conditions such as hepatitis B or who require dialysis or
therapy. Nursing homes are reimbursed at higher rates for more acutely
ill residents.

The
goal of this policy, also known as the "Green Flag" policy, is to admit
the sickest patients regardless of a nursing home's staffing level,
alleged Jay Urban of the Milwaukee law firm Urban & Taylor, who
filed the suit. The Madison law firm Boller & Vaughan are
co-counsel in the lawsuit.

"They
are putting profits ahead of people," Urban said. "You can't take in
higher acuity people unless you provide higher acuity care."

from medical news Today:

U.S. residents with chronic diseases are more likely to forgo medical
care because of high costs and experience medical errors than residents
of other nations with such conditions, according to a study published
on Thursday in the journal Health Affairs, Reuters/Boston Globe reports. For the study, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund,
researchers surveyed 7,500 adults, each of whom had at least one of
seven chronic diseases -- high blood pressure, heart disease, lung
disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and depression. Participants
included residents of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the U.S.

from KOCO.com:

A nonprofit group, A Perfect Cause, said there are currently 30 sex
offenders living in Oklahoma nursing homes. The group hopes that moving
offenders out of those facilities will make them safer for other
residents."The Department of Corrections talked about there
being thousands of people moving from the criminal justice system who
are 65 or older in the coming years," said Wes Bledsoe, of A Perfect
Cause.

Gov. Brad Henry signed a bill into law last July that required the
state to build a separate nursing home for sex offenders. The Oklahoma
Health Department is preparing to seek bids to run the facility, but
also wants to know how those bidders would plan to operate it."The
proposal will include provisions for heightened, 24-hour security to
protect the residents and the public," said Henry Hartsell, of
Protective Health Services.

from Nursing Home of the Future:

Overview

The NHoF lab has created a platform to test new ideas in a real world
environment in partnership with designers, clinicians, service
providers, product manufacturers and elder care experts.

from MarketWatch: