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Keep Promise To Nursing Home Patients
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Published: March 11, 2008
When it passed nursing home reforms in 2001, the Florida Legislature promised to protect the care and dignity of the infirm.
The state should keep its promise.
Times are not so tough that those who live in nursing homes should bear the brunt of state budget cuts.
Yet in January, Florida cut $75 million from the Medicaid fund that supports nursing-home care for the poor. Now lawmakers are considering a $139-million cut.
At the same time, the federal Medicare program wants to cut $24 billion from nursing home budgets nationwide.
Lawmakers should shield nursing homes from further reductions. It's unrealistic to expect these facilities to take double-whammy cuts and still provide a decent quality of life for residents.
Administrators say cuts will have to come out of what's spent on social services, building maintenance and personal care items such as dentures, hearing aides and glasses. They also might reduce the number of new Medicaid patients they admit.
However, the Florida Health Care Association pledges not to seek a reduction in state-mandated staffing levels, a commendable stand.
Florida requires nursing-home residents to have at least 2.9 hours of attention from a certified nursing-home assistant, in addition to care from a nurse. This staffing standard - the highest in the country - was negotiated in return for legislation making it more difficult to sue nursing homes.
Homes must abide by the staffing ratio or face serious sanctions and the potential loss of their licenses.
During tight economic times, Florida should stand strong for the most frail and vulnerable among us - those in nursing homes, children in need of protection and the severely developmentally disabled.
If we can't do that, Florida doesn't just have a fiscal crisis. It has a moral crisis as well.
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