Archive for June, 2010

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in the News

Of the estimated 17,000 nursing homes in the United States, thousands of those provide excellent, high quality care for aging adults. Sadly, studies have shown that as many as 30% of these nursing homes have received violations that could harm or ultimately take the life of their residents. Many instances of nursing home abuse and neglect go unreported, but more and more people who have watched their loved ones suffer due to nursing home negligence are fighting back and winning.

Negligent Care in a Texas Nursing Home

The family of a 94-year-old woman who was a resident at Green Acres Parkdale Nursing Home filed a lawsuit against the nursing home stating that her legs were amputated because of negligent care. The woman had been a resident of Green Acres Parkdale since 1995 and suffered a fractured hip after falling in 2003. While at the local hospital, she developed bed sores and blisters on her leg and heels.

When the woman was returned to Green Acres Parkdale with the bed sores and blisters, the nursing home staff neglected to properly monitor and treat her condition and prevent infection. The family routinely requested that the staff reposition the woman, treat the wounds and apply new bandages. The unfortunate solution to the woman’s medical condition and weakening immune system was double leg amputation below the knees.

The case was brought to trial and on Feb. 4, 2008 the family was awarded 0,000 in damages.

Abuse Allegations in an Illinois Nursing Home

In 2007, the Pleasant Hill Village nursing home was fined ,000 by the state for abuse allegations against residents. The allegations stated that two nurse’s aides abused residents by sticking them with safety pins, taunted residents and removed the resident’s personal property if the residents did not behave the way they wanted. The aides were fired from the nursing home and may face criminal charges.

Rape Case in a Florida Nursing Home

In 2003, a 77-year-old female resident of Southwood Nursing Center was sexually assaulted while sleeping by another male resident of the facility. The 83-year-old man had a lengthy arrest record and had been convicted of sex crimes twice in the past. None of the other residents of the nursing home or their families were informed about the resident’s past. The nursing home made no effort to protect the other residents from this potentially dangerous resident. The family sued and was awarded 0,000 in damages.

It is important to watch for any signs of abuse or neglect of loved ones in a nursing home facility. Often residents are incapable or afraid to alert family members of any wrongdoing. All nursing home residents’ basic rights are protected on a state and federal level, and those responsible for negligence should be held accountable. If you feel your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact an attorney before the statute of limitations runs out.

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FEDS’ WEBSITE LISTS BEST, WORST U. S. NURSING HOMES

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency that is part of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, annually ranks the 15,000-plus <a title=Nursing homes at Great Places! rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://www.greatplacesinc.com/features/NursingHomes.aspx>nursing homes</a> that participate in Medicare or Medicaid programs.  Last December, the agency released its first quality ratings for these facilities.

The Center uses a star rating system, from a low of one star to a high of five.  The ratings, based on health inspection surveys, staffing data and quality of care measures, are available at http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare.com.  The website provides easy access to essential information for anyone evaluating <a title=Nursing homes at Great Places! rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://www.greatplacesinc.com/features/NursingHomes.aspx>nursing homes</a> in a particular geographic area.  According to the CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems, “Our goal in developing this unprecedented quality rating system is to provide families a straightforward assessment of nursing home quality, with meaningful distinctions between high and low performing homes.  The new information will also help consumers and families identify important questions to ask nursing homes and challenge nursing homes to improve their quality of care.”

The rating system is based on a nursing home’s performance in the following critical areas:

§  Health inspection surveys. State and federal surveyors perform annual assessments of each facility’s healthcare services and measure its compliance with local and federal rules.  The survey is intended to protect residents’ health and safety.

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§  Quality measures. This category uses 10 key measures to examine the quality of a facility, including percentages of residents who have pressure ulcers (i.e., bedsores) after their first 90 days in the facility; the numbers of residents whose mobility worsened after admissions; and the receipt of proper medical care by the population.

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§  Staffing information. This category calculates the number of hours of nursing and other staff care per patient per day, adjusted to account for the particular needs of residents (e.g., illness levels, services required.)  This measurement is considered to be particularly important, because the more professional attention is paid to nursing home residents, the more likely it is that the resident is receiving appropriate care.

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The product of the system is a quality rating for a nursing home’s performance according to these measures, coupled with a composite score.  A one-star rating means that the facility is “much below average,” while two stars represent “below average” performance.  Three stars?  “Average.”  Four stars means “above average,” and five, the highest rating, means “much above average.”

The new system has gotten high praise from Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat from Wisconsin, who’s chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.  “With this new rating system, CMS is improving the ability of consumers to readily obtain critical information which should be used in conjunction with in-person visits to a facility.”  He added, “Transparency is key when it comes to nursing home quality.  I commend Acting Administrator Weems and, as always, appreciate the opportunity to work together to improve our nation’s nursing homes.”

“Choosing a nursing home or community-based care is one of the most difficult and sometimes confusing decisions families have to make,” noted Thomas Hamilton, director of the CMS group that designed the new system.  “The new website improvements also include links to information for community-based alternatives to nursing homes that may be of great interest to families.  Regardless of the type of support a family chooses,” he said, “It is vital that families and caregivers use the Web site as just one of many important sources of information they should consult. Families should also consult with their physician, talk to the state’s nursing home ombudsman or the state’s survey and certification office and, most importantly, visit the nursing home or community-based program for themselves.”

The first round of ratings found about 12 percent of the nation’s nursing homes deserved the five-star rating, while a disturbing 22 percent received only one star.  Ratings for the other approximately two-thirds of the nursing homes were distributed fairly evenly among the two, three and four star rankings.

U. S. News rolled up the data to produce listings of the best (http://health.usnews.com/sections/health/best-nursing-homes/index.html) and worst (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/best-nursing-homes/2009/03/11/10-worst-states-for-top-nursing-homes.html) nursing homes, concluding that the 10 states that have the lowest percentage of top-rated homes are Louisiana, which has only nine five-star homes, slightly more than three percent of the 284 facilities in that state.  Georgia, with 6.2 percent of its facilities rated tops, was second, followed by Oklahoma (7.1 percent); Tennessee (7.3 percent); West Virginia (7.7 percent); Kentucky (8.7 percent); Indiana (8.9 percent); Missouri (9.1 percent); Texas (9.3 percent); and Ohio and Utah, tied for tenth place, with 9.9 percent of five-star rated facilities.

Digital hearing aids and mobile phones

Being able to hear clearly makes all the difference in almost every situation in daily life. However, certain situations, such as talking on the phone, remain difficult to manage – even with the best digital hearing aids.

But now, with huge advances in hearing aids, not just making them smaller and more lightweight but also making them compatible with mobile phones, TV’s and even music listening devices. A number of leading hearing aid manufacturers now support mobile phones and electronic devices such as Phonak’s and Oticon hearing aids.

Oticon have recently launched the ConnectLine™ series helping to link the Oticon Epoq and Dual instruments to the world of electronic communication. This really is a massive breakthrough for all hearing instrument wearers and provides to them not only amazing hearing and clarity of sound but added convenience of being able to use the mobile phone seamlessly with a hearing aid. Listening to the TV has also become a total joy again for people who wear an Epoq or Oticon Dual as it will bring the sound directly into their ears. This not only helps to increase their own comprehension and enjoyment of the sound but also helps to minimise the frustrations that others often have to bear when the TV volume is too high.

The Oticon ConnectLine solution allows the hearing instrument wearer to talk on the phone, watch TV and listen to music with total ease. In a very similar way Phonak’s new digital hearing aid family: Exelia Art, Versata, Certena and Audeo Yes all have connectivity to mobile phones, TV’s and other electronic devices. Phonak uses a clever device called iCom, which is a wireless communication interface that integrates with all phonak hearing aids. It actually connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to televisions, telephones, MP3 players, computers and other audio sources with a simple touch of a button. So the idea is that with the latest advances in hearing solutions, anyone suffering from hearing loss needn’t be left behind, in fact some may say they have an advantage. Hearing aids that connect to mobile phones, TV’s and other devices are a thing of the future and represent an amazing step forward for all wearers. Hear speech more clearly, the TV directly into your ears, pick up the phone at the touch of a button and talk hands free, even listen to your favourite music. And the best thing is you can do this all at once, with a simple click to tell your hearing device what you wish to engage.

Open-behind-the-ear hearing aids make customization unnecessary. Learn the features of an open-behind-the-ear hearing aid from an audiologist in this free health video. Expert: MJ DeSousa Contact: www.listenupcanada.com Bio: MJ DeSousa is Chief Audiologist and one of the founders of ListenUP! and is responsible for staffing and clinical practices, including all Audiology. Filmmaker: Kevin Fletcher
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Saving Your Family from Nursing Home Neglect

When our oldest relatives start to pass beyond their golden years and into a time when they need extensive care, sometimes the kindest thing that we think we can do for them is to put them in a situation where they will be cared for by a staff of professional nurses at all times. In some cases, however, this well intentioned act takes a deadly turn as nursing homes neglect and sometimes outright abuse patients.

Elder abuse and nursing home abuse are not isolated or rare phenomena. Like the shaking of babies when children cry for reasons that an overly stressed parent cannot fathom, the constant needs of the elderly can cause over worked nurses to snap. No one sets out to work in a nursing home just to abuse people, but stress and a difficult job can combine to set terrible acts in motion.

The problem with nursing homes is that they are often understaffed, with too few nurses to care for the patients. Call buttons might be ignored for quite a while as these overworked nurses rush from patient to patient just trying to get everyone’s most basic care finished with before they respond to calls. Some nursing home patients might wait hours for just a drink of water, especially if they make frequent requests like this, and might end up with bed sores from nurses without the time to turn patients regularly.

With horror stories like these, and worse stories about nurses disabling the call buttons of residents who are very needy or even patients falling out of their beds and breaking bones, you might think that you should spring for the extra money for some kind of in home care. Do not think that elder abuse happens just in professional facilities. With no one to watch them and no consequences for giving poor care, in home nursing care can be just as bad for a stressed out nurse and her patient as nursing home care can be.

The question becomes how to protect our loved ones from nursing home abuse and neglect and help them to get the best care possible. The answer is to check in often with your nursing home. While searching, keep a few things in mind for your visits, and never place an elderly relative in a nursing home that you have not paid at least one visit to in order to check things out with your own eyes.

Drop in on a few of the patients and talk to them. The more coherent ones will be able to tell you how they like living in the nursing home, and how well they are cared for. They will be grateful for the visitation, and you will be able to get a good idea of how the nursing home is run. Also talk to the people in charge to find out how many nurses are scheduled during all hours. There should not be more than a couple of patients per nurse at any time, even if this does get expensive for the facility. That standard of care is what you should be paying for.

Talk to the nurses, too, and ask them if there have been any incidents, and whether they feel that they are short staffed or well covered. You will find that many of them will be open and honest with you about staffing issues or other problems that you might not have heard about elsewhere. When you are through talking to the nurses, go to the police. Ask them if they have gotten any calls to the nursing home, and check with the hospital to see if they can tell you whether they have had to take a lot of the nursing home patients in for things like broken hips or infected bed sores.

Once you feel that you have a clear picture of a good home, help ensure that it stays that way for your loved ones. Call often to check on them, and visit them often as well. The more that the nurses see that the family is involved, the more they will see your loved one as someone worthy of care rather than just another job to be done.

You want to be able to see your family members often to make sure that they are doing well in the nursing home and that they have no complaints. Even small things should be taken seriously to prevent nursing home abuse or neglect.

Related Nursing Homes Articles

Suffering from Nursing Home Negligence

Nursing homes are supposed to exist to care for the aging members of our society who are no longer able to care for themselves. They are supposed to be places of safety and security where our elderly loved ones can get the often extensive care that they need and the love and support of the staff that they desire. Unfortunately, these nursing homes have become less and less about the patient and more and more about turning a decent profit – or a more than decent profit.

One of the biggest drains on the finances of any business can be the employees, and the more highly trained and well educated these employees are, the more expensive they are to keep in employ.

A nurse is a highly trained medical professional, and are essential to the safe and proper running of a good nursing home. Unfortunately, the more focused these nursing homes get on money and on profit, the fewer nurses each shift seems to have until the remaining nurses are trying to do the work of twice their number.

These skeleton crews of nurses are simply unable to keep up with the demands of caring for our elderly relatives and for their invalid patients. They might find themselves taking shortcuts due to the nursing home’s negligence, desperately trying to keep up with the endless work of caring for people too old or too sick to care for themselves.

These nurses quickly become burned out, with many of them quitting or transferring into new fields to escape the physical and emotional stresses of working under these conditions.

The more nurses leave the nursing homes, the more the homes try to make do with fewer and fewer capable hands to do the work. These nursing homes become hotbeds of neglect and abuse, all in the name of turning a profit at the expense of the health and well being of the patients that the system was created to care for.

Nursing home patients are frequent victims of this terrible nursing home negligence, and little is done about the dangers that they face until truly horrible harm is done or patients die because of the negligence of the nursing home owners. Not only do exhausted and overworked nurses become more prone to aggressive or angry behaviors like neglect and abuse, but they also become prone to human error.

Incorrect medications or incorrect doses might be given by nurses who are working too many hours and doing too much work for their bodies to handle, causing painful complications and even death to the patients.

For too long, we have stood aside and hoped that the system would improve on its own, and the system has continued to get worse. As nursing homes realize that there are few to no consequences for behaving in a negligent fashion, they realize that they can get away with their terrible behavior without modification for the better. Occasionally one of them will get tagged with a lawsuit, however the huge profits that they have been turning help them to take care of settlements without any problems. The lack of consequences might even make them more bold in their negligent activities.

The time for letting these nursing homes get away with their neglectful behavior is over. It is up to us to stand up for the victims of these crimes of neglect and abuse and help the victims find their voices in the legal system. Anyone who has had to watch a loved one suffer from the aftermath of nursing home neglect or abuse knows the pain that they are going through.

It is time for these families to band together to stand up to the greedy nursing home owners and managers and make them stand accountable for their actions. The abuse will not stop until we stop it, and nursing home abuse lawyers can help us make this stand against the corporate profiteering mentality.

With the aid of a nursing home abuse lawyer, families of the victims of this terrible crime can make the nursing home owners pay for the suffering that they cause their patients through their negligence. They will be forced to deal with the consequences of their actions, and a big enough hit to their purses might even cause them to reconsider their impersonal and impractical approach to heal care for the elderly.

It is in our power to end nursing home negligence if only the families of the victims stand up and fight together for the justice that should be theirs.

The Aftermath of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

Nursing home abuse is a problem that stems from the overworked staff of nursing homes all across the country. Nurses with too many patients to handle are worn to the breaking point and beyond, often burning out and quitting, leaving nursing homes even shorter staffed. Those nurses that remain are often tired, overworked, and underpaid. None of this excuses neglect in nursing homes, but it certainly does seem to cause it in many cases.

By the time our elderly relatives are put into nursing homes, they are unable to care for themselves in even the most basic of ways. Many of them need help just to get out of bed or turn over, not to mention being fed, bathed, and taken to the bathroom. In addition to being much heavier than infants requiring the same kind of care, our elderly relatives are also often moodier, fully knowing what they used to be capable of and angry at the world for taking it away from them with time.

They become a constant challenge for nursing home staffers, and the constant strain of even the happiest nursing home residents can become a breaking point for nursing home nurses and doctors.

When this point is reached, these nurses or doctors can become a danger to our elderly relatives, either neglecting their care intentionally or through lack of time to get everything done. Some even become abusers, intentionally inflicting harm on our loved ones. The aftermath of abuse like this is terrible, with families being torn apart by guilt and horror at the mistreatment of a loved one.

In some cases, this mistreatment can lead to the death of the very loved ones that we were hoping to protect by placing them in the care of professionals. The very last thing that any of us wants to hear is that our loved one has passed away in a nursing home. It is even worse to hear that they had died of something that would have been entirely preventable with proper care.

Many nursing home patients in these places develop bed sores from lying in one position for too long. Others may get cuts or scrapes that become infected, and these infections are sometimes not noticed or properly cared for. Residents of nursing homes may have bandages that are infrequently changed or might become injured while trying to move about and be left for extended periods of time by nurses and doctors who are too busy or tired to do a routine check.

This kind of neglect is the sad result of understaffed nursing homes, and should not be treated as acceptable in any way. Our loved ones have been made to suffer, and the only way to make things better for others is to ensure that the nursing homes are punished for their budget saving negligence.

A nursing home abuse lawyer can help you to bring about this justice in court by filing a civil suit against the nursing home owners or management who were responsible for the poor level of care that your loved one was forced to endure at their hands. You will be able to take them to task for their treatment of their elderly patients and help to ensure that no one else is treated this way again.

Hopefully you will still have your relatives with you to go through this battle, damaged by their terrible experience but alive and recovering from the damage to their body and spirit. A nursing home lawyer will help you to get the money that you need to continue their care, both medical and emotional.

These lawyers will help you and your family by forcing the nursing homes to pay for the suffering that they have caused. They will get you the money that you need to treat whatever injuries that your loved one sustained and to place them in a home with better care in the future.

If your relative’s passing was the event that led you to discover the neglectful ways of the nursing home, then a nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer will work with you to get you and your family the money for your suffering that will help you be able to financially move on with your lives.

It is a terrible thing, to see a helpless elderly person become the victim of abuse or neglect, but it happens every day. A nursing home abuse lawyer will try to help you ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

How To Plan Ahead With Long Term Care Insurance

You may feel that this is not something that you need, and maybe because of your age, you see it as frivolous. The sad part is that many people feel that way, and they don’t look to the future or think anything bad is going to happen to them. Sadly, these are the ones who find themselves needing long-term care that goes beyond what their insurance company is willing to pay. For them, long-term care insurance would have made things much easier.

The problem with thinking we are “too young” to be thinking about long term care insurance is that it doesn’t always happen to the old – it can happen to anyone. In 2003, the former lead singer of a musical band who was close to 60 at that time and in quite good health took a fall across a fence at his home, breaking several vertebrae in his neck. He is still in the rehabilitation hospital, and it is uncertain when he will be able to return to his home. When that happens, full-time nursing care will still be needed as he is paralyzed from the diaphragm down. A man in good health who just happened to have a freak accident! It can happen to anyone at any age, and you have to be prepared for that. Having long term care insurance is certainly much better than having to worry about how to pay the nursing home or how to pay the nurses that are going to have to come to a patient’s home every day for the rest of his or her life.

Many insurance companies have begun offering long-term care insurance, so more than likely the company you have used for your car, life insurance, and home owner’s insurance offers it as well. It is often advisable to purchase additional insurance from the same company since they tend to offer discounted rates to long-term customers. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t obtain several rate quotes, but the first one to consider is your existing company. In addition, many companies now have instant rate quotes over the Internet, though their actual premium may differ slightly for any number of reasons.

There is never a good time to think about long-term care insurance because we don’t want to admit that we may need it. However, the best time is today before there something happens that we do need it. Unfortunately, in our changing world, unusual things happen every day, and you don’t want to find yourself needing long term care for yourself or family member and not have any idea how you re going to pay for it. Get at least five quotes, one from your current insurance company, and make your decision before you need it.

Opportunity Cost and your Long Term Care Decision

If you are out shopping for long term care (commonly abbreviated as LTCI or LTC), I’m going to encourage you to take a look at a way of providing long term care benefits that is probably new to you. On the other hand, if you are in the crowd that thinks they will never need long term care, I would also suggest you evaluate this line of thinking.

Dick and Jane are both age 65, recently retired and models of good health. They have ignored the long term care subject until recently. They just put Jane’s mother, who is 88, into a nursing home. Talk about sticker shock! She is in a nice place, but Dick and Jane are not 100% certain that her assets will allow her to stay there for the rest of her life.

Consequently, they have been out looking at long term care for themselves. They figure they can afford to insure a portion of what it might cost them if they ever need some form of LTCI, so they are looking at a benefit of ,000 a month. The premium is around ,200 a year.

Here’s a new concept that Dick and Jane must become accustomed to now that they are retired. They both had good jobs during their working years. If they ever wanted to buy anything, it was just a question of looking at their income to see if they could swing the purchase. Pretty straightforward.

Now that they are retired, most of their expenditures are going to come from investment returns on the assets they have accumulated, not income from working. So they need to understand the difference between premium cost and opportunity cost. Here’s what I mean…

If they elect to buy this ,200 a year long term care policy, the money has to come from somewhere. Chances are it’s coming from the interest earned on perhaps a CD or an annuity. But there is an opportunity cost associated with paying the premiums from earnings on any asset.

Let’s say they are going to pay this ,200 from the interest on a CD they own which is earning 5.4% interest. Since interest is taxable, and assuming they are in a 15% tax bracket, they would have to have ,300 in that CD to produce ,200 after tax to pay the premium.

They can’t spend the ,300. It can’t grow. Basically, they have “committed” ,300 of their assets to pay the premium on their LTC policy. That’s the one “job” of this ,300. The premium may only be ,200 a year, but the opportunity cost is ,300.

Let’s take a look at another of their alternatives. It’s called asset based long term care. How it works will unfold as I provide the example and contrast below.

One approach to asset based long term care involves re-positioning ,300 of Dick and Jane’s CD to a combination long term care/life insurance policy plan with an insurance company. Here’s what moving this money does for them…

The money on deposit with the insurance company grows at interest, but it is tax-deferred interest so the insurance company will not send them 1099s every year for an amount they have to pay tax on like the bank is required to do. In 10 years, assuming current rates, the ,300 will grow to 7,000; in 20 years 1,000. The CD, remember, does not grow, as its job is to spin off interest to pay the annual ,200 premium on the traditional LTCI plan.

If either Dick or Jane needs any form of long term care, the insurance company plan will pay them ,900 a month for 50 months–0 a month more than the traditional plan.

But here’s the real kicker.

If Dick and Jane never need long term care, then the camp that doesn’t buy it would have been right. If Dick and Jane bought the traditional long term care plan, in 10 years they would have paid out ,000 in premiums and about ,400 in taxes on their CD interest in order to net out the required premium. That’s a total of ,700. The ,300 portion of their CD would still be ,300.

However, if Dick and Jane never need long term care, chose the asset based long term care plan and both die, for example in 10 years, the outcome is different. They have paid no annual premiums and the life insurance company will pay about 8,000 tax free to their kids.

Which sounds like a better plan?

The Future Of Nursing: Nursing Home Jobs

According to the Occupational Outlook guide, the nursing profession is among the fastest growing of all career paths. Within nursing, the single specialty expected to grow by leaps and bounds is gerontology. The aging of the baby boomers has increased the average age of the typical patient. According to one survey, patients over 65 make up 60 percent of adult primary visits, 48 percent of inpatient hospital admissions and 85 percent of nursing home residents. By the year 2020 – less than 15 years from now – a study from Occupational Health and Safety Administration predicts that the need for registered nurses in nursing homes will increase 66%, for licensed practical and vocational nurses by 72% and the need for certified nursing assistants will increase by 69%. For nurses working in home health settings – which include ‘managed care’ nursing home settings – those numbers are even higher – well above 250% increase in nurses needed at every level of licensing.

In other words, if you’re planning a career in nursing or are already a nurse, there are thousands of jobs available for you in nursing homes and chronic care facilities. The face of geriatric nursing has also changed considerably over the past decades. If your image of a nursing home is one of bleak halls and hopeless, helpless patients, then a visit to many of today’s nursing homes will offer an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Nursing Home Jobs In the New Millennium

This generation of seniors is more active and more determined than any other that has come before them. It’s led to major changes in the practice of long term elder care. If you decide that a nursing home job is for you, here are some of the options that you can explore.

On Site Nurse in Senior Housing

Many seniors don’t need round the clock nursing care, but do need some nursing supervision. Senior housing communities often have an on-site nurse who is available to help residents with medication problems, take care of routine medical care and be available in case of an emergency. The nurse on site will also often consult with doctors who work with individual residents to help manage any medical care that they need. The pay scale is generally quite good, and the hours closer to a regular work week than in many other geriatric nursing jobs.

Continuing Care Retirement Community Nursing Jobs

Unlike traditional nursing homes, residents of CCRCs have and maintain their own apartments with whatever support they require to remain as independent as possible. Nursing job opportunities in CCRCs range from managed care nursing similar to the duties of a head nurse in a hospital to providing personal care to individual residents. CCRCs offer opportunities for skilled nursing care, medical case management and licensed practical nursing.

Rehabilitation Facilities

Not all nursing homes cater to long-term geriatric patients. As hospital costs have risen, the trend has been to discharge patients to rehab facilities and convalescent homes rather than keep them in the hospital until they’re ready to go home. Nurses in rehab facilities and convalescent homes get to be part of the recovery process, and many take great pride and joy in watching a patient advance and recover. Convalescent home jobs include charge nurses, floor nurses and nursing assistants as well as physical and occupational therapy specialists.

Traditional Nursing Home Jobs

Even traditional nursing homes are far different than they were a few decades ago. A nurse specializing in gerontology in a nursing home can expect to work with patients in the long term. The jobs available range from head nurses for an entire facility through floor charge nurses who are responsible for overseeing the care and medical needs of one wing or floor and certified nursing assistants who do much of the hands on nursing care.

Nursing home staff talk about what it is like working in long-term care. Everyday we celebrate the work of nursing home staff. This short tribute stars nursing staff from “Nursing Home Heroes.”
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Stop Medicare Fraud Before you Become a Victim

Every year, millions of dollars are taken from the Medicare program through deceptive practices. Medicare fraud hurts not only the program as a whole, but everyone who receives Medicare benefits. The quick guide below reveals how Medicare fraud takes place, why it affects you as an end beneficiary, and what you can do to help prevent it.

What is Medicare Fraud?

Medicare fraud occurs when false claims are made on behalf of a real beneficiary. For example, you visit a particular physician or medical clinic. They ask for your Medicare card and give you a certain amount that is due, but then bill Medicare for more than that amount. They pocket the difference. Another type of Medicare fraud is when someone bills Medicare for services or equipment that you never received or for items different from what you received. A dishonest individual might also use the Medicare card of another to receive medical services or to buy equipment. Or, someone may return home medical equipment, but continue to bill Medicare for the equipment. There are other variations of Medicare fraud, but these are the most common.

Why Should You Care?

You may ask, “Why should I care if someone else commits Medicare fraud?” There are two main reasons you should join the battle against Medicare fraud. One, your Medicare co-pay costs will increase little by little because of money lost through fraud. Just as a retail store might increase prices to cover the losses of theft, Medicare costs will increase for everyone when fraud occurs. Two, you or your loved one could be the next victim. If you frequent the emergency room, pharmacy, or doctor’s office, then you are susceptible to becoming a victim of Medicare fraud. Someone may steal your Medicare card, or you might encounter a dishonest person working at a doctor’s office or pharmacy. Either way, the burden of proof will fall upon you because the Medicare card and billing information will be in your name.

Detecting Medicare Fraud

Detecting Medicare fraud is easy if you keep an eye out for suspicious activities. Beware of providers that offer services for “free” when you have already given them your Medicare card. Also, if a provider offers to waive your co-payments on services routinely without checking to see if your financial situation has improved, you should be leery of this practice. Other “red flags” to watch for include pressure selling for higher-priced services, receiving Medicare bills for services you have not received, so-called “free” consultations for Medicare patients, marketing tactics being used by a provider such as telemarketing, and charges for co-payments on services that are supposed to be covered 100 percent by Medicare.

Do Not Falsely Accuse

If you suspect that a provider has committed Medicare fraud, double check with the provider to be sure it is not a simple mistake first. Sometimes human and computer errors do occur, so give your provider the benefit of the doubt from the start. If so-called “errors” seem to be happening often, then it’s time to investigate! The last thing you want is to wrongly accuse your health provider, so be sure to approach suspected Medicare fraud with caution.

Before Reporting a Provider

Before you report a provider for Medicare fraud, be sure you have all the facts. You’ll need all vital information about the provider including name, phone number, address, type of practice, etc. Also, you’ll need to gather all the facts about the incident so you can clearly present your case. Write or type a detailed timeline of events, the item(s) or service(s) that were billed incorrectly, the date when this occurred, and any other pertinent information.

Take Preventative Measures

If you encounter a situation where you believe you or a loved one have fallen victim to Medicare fraud, report it to your local and state Medicare representatives. Also, take the following steps to help prevent this from happening to you:

1. Never give anyone your Medicare card or claim number who is not your caregiver or physician.

2. Beware of those who wish to review your medical records when they are not providing medical services to you.

3. Beware of “free” consultations and Medicare services being offered by a clinic or physician.

4. Never request medical services that you do not actually need.

5. Beware of providers that offer to get Medicare to pay for services or items that are usually not covered by Medicare.

Most of all follow your instincts. If a situation doesn’t seem right, investigate to find the answers. You or your loved one can be safe from Medicare fraud if you use precaution during every medical situation. Keep in mind that criminals do not always come in dark clothing with masks on their faces. Those who commit Medicare fraud can appear to be normal caregivers or physicians, so keep your guard up any time you give out personal information such as your Medicare card.

Use this knowledge to join the fight against Medicare fraud, and help America to stay healthy!