The Daily Editors' Blog

A reason to hide

A reason to hide
A reason to hide
Given recent flaps about hospice care in nursing homes, one has to wonder if long-term care providers are always going to be subjected to the "one step forward, one step back" syndrome. 

Therapy providers are a most obvious recent example. How else to explain the imposition of Medicare Part B therapy caps? The new rules dictating solo, group and concurrent therapy rates? The very existence of the Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction?

In the private sector, if you create a successful product or service, you can bet imitators will unveil a remarkably similar mousetrap. In long-term care, it's assumed that if you are doing well or making a change, it must be so you can cheat taxpayers. Maybe you just have to be resigned to second-class status when Uncle Sam is your biggest patron. Especially since he has so many other potential recipients to consider.

But if that's the case, then your next question has to be: How can we quietly make a good living in this business so no one comes looking to take a rib out of us yet again when we achieve success?

close

Next Article in The Daily Editors' Blog

Daily Editors' Notes

McKnight's Daily Editor's Notes features commentary on the latest in long-term care news. Entries are written by Editorial Director John O'Connor on Monday and Friday; Senior Editor Elizabeth Newman on Tuesday; and Editor James M. Berklan on Wednesday.

    ALL MCKNIGHT'S BLOGS

    More in The Daily Editors' Blog

    Engaging ER physicians the way to go for long-term care

    Engaging ER physicians the way to go for ...

    Healthcare journalists may have fallen inadvertently into triggering a Pavlovian response in our readers: We write "hospital readmissions" and you click.

    Catching the wave: It's becoming easier to get a professional band at your nursing home

    Catching the wave: It's becoming easier to get ...

    Less than a year ago, Gary Gamponia and his benevolent bandmates broke onto the national scene with a McKnight's blog entry about the way they play concerts at nursing homes ...

    Valley fever 'epidemic': advice for providers

    Valley fever 'epidemic': advice for providers

    The senior citizen population is on the rise in the Southwest. Unfortunately, so is a frightening illness: valley fever.