Back to the nursing-home debates that (for ample reasons) continually ebb and flow across our state. For me, one particular issue and the questions it naturally raises among thinking adults leave me bewildered.
My primary question is simple: If nursing homes are expected to provide proper care on every level for the state’s aged, infirm and otherwise disabled who badly need such service, why should taxpayers foot the liability insurance bills when owners fail in their responsibilities? After all, I have to pay for my own private insurance coverage. So do car dealers, supermarkets and on and on. So should I also pay to cover my neighbor’s liabilities when he acts irresponsibly or harms others?
Yet Arkansas taxpayers for years have been reimbursing the cost of liability insurance for all but 20 or so Arkansas nursing homes in an industry known for aggressively lobbying those elected to pass the laws we all must live with.
I’ve written previously about these liability reimbursements from we the people to a nursing home’s bottom line. It’s one of those matters created by lawmakers that deserves the fullest possible scrutiny and widespread public awareness of what’s happening to our tax dollars.
Those who follow these opinions know I invariably turn to Martha Deaver of Conway, the person in our state who (along with attorney David Couch) best understands the well-documented failings of Arkansas’ nursing homes. As the president of Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents, Deaver has become the bona fide bane to homes that fall short of adequate care for their residents. In that role she regularly examines every inspection report and document relating to the level of care provided by these facilities.
Naturally, I asked her opinion of the latest report on Arkansas nursing homes, reflected in the June 2013 Medicaid cost reports. That report shows 211 of the state’s 232 nursing homes received a total of more than $23 million to reimburse their professional liability insurance costs for the previous fiscal year.
And big surprise! Deaver shared my feelings about such a practice.
“The difference between us and nursing homes is that we personally pay for our insurance premiums for protection, and if we’re irresponsible enough to receive a DUI or other infraction, our insurance premiums rise,” she said. “Nursing-home owners’ premiums are paid by us citizens through taxation that supports Medicaid. The cost for most (but not all) residents’ care is paid under Medicaid.”
The liability insurance taxpayers pay for might involve various categories of coverage such as visitors’ injury accidents, transport van accidents, along with abuse and neglect of residents.
“We have a cycle going within the nursing-home industry,” Deaver continued. “Medicaid reimburses a home for care (including its liability insurance premiums). The nursing home that gets tax money doesn’t always give good care. Abuse and neglect occur, which means liability insurance premiums rise, thus requiring more tax dollars to cover the home.”
Conversely, Deaver explained, if resident care improved, premiums could be reduced, resulting in tax savings in the federal/state budget. “In a time of record deficits and national debt, would that not be a welcome set of circumstances?”
She added: “AANHR believes all Arkansas nursing homes should be required to carry liability insurance. However, we do not believe taxpayers should be paying to protect nursing home owners when abuse, neglect, and death of our most frail and vulnerable citizens occurs.”
The 2013 report shows the five homes receiving the highest liability insurance reimbursements from tax dollars totaled $2.3 million. They broke down this way: Heartland Rehab and Care Center, $499,800; Brookridge Cove Rehab and Care, $495,600; Southern Trace Rehab and Care,$487,200; Lake Village Rehab and Care, $428,400; and River Ridge Rehab and Care, $420,000. Four other homes each were reimbursed more than $300,000.
I found it odd to a layman in such matters that 21 Arkansas homes received no insurance reimbursement from the public trough. Deaver said that could be for a number of reasons. First, the tiny percentage of privately owned and managed nursing homes that don’t participate in Medicaid also don’t get reimbursements of any form from taxpayers. Also, she said, it could be that some families with abused or neglected family members (and their attorney) might be less inclined to file a civil suit if the facility didn’t carry liability insurance.
Recycling I-540 cable
I asked Randy Ort, my email buddy from the Highway and Transportation Department, if (in the name of efficiency with public money) the miles of relatively new median cable equipment being torn up to widen Interstate 540 will be saved and reinstalled when that project is complete.
Ort replied: “Yes, we are stockpiling system components for use as replacement parts. The posts, caps, turnbuckles, anchors, etc., are easily reused. The cable can be cut into 25-30-foot segments and used for splicing together cables that have been cut. We’re consulting with the cable manufacturers to see if we can re-coil longer sections of the cable for re-use.”
Hooray for common sense!
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 85 on 03/02/2014