Was any federal program ever more misnamed than the “Nursing Home Quality Incentive Program”? Rather than reward nursing home quality, it has effectively rewarded states that have out-of-control COVID-19...
With POC testing strategy, federal government continues to respond poorly to COVID-19 in nursing homes
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 08, 2020
In the federal government’s fight against COVID-19, nursing homes have effectively been left for dead. Despite a death count that began with the February outbreak in a Kirkland, Washington, nursing...
Useless PPE befitting federal nursing home neglect
By
Brendan Williams
Jul 29, 2020
According to Paraprofessional Health Institute data, there were 581,000 nursing assistants working in nursing homes in 2018. Their median wage was just $13.38 an hour. Ninety-two percent were women,...
The floggings will continue until morale improves
By
Brendan Williams
Jun 25, 2020
Caught in the throes of a pandemic lethal to those they serve, nursing homes have been largely abandoned by policymakers. The $4.9 billion in federal relief provided in May was very welcome. However,...
Hospitals are heroic, while nursing homes are always to blame
By
Brendan Williams
Apr 29, 2020
Hospitals have always enjoyed “most favored nation” status in healthcare, and that’s even more true during the COVID-19 pandemic. But apparently you can’t have heroes without villains. While lauding...
Coronavirus sheds light on nursing home underfunding
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 09, 2020
Why should it take the COVID-19 outbreak for policymakers to pay attention to nursing homes? Last year in the state of Washington, when Medicaid underfunding forced the closure of Keiro Northwest — a...
Facts, not anecdotes, must guide long-term care policy
By
Brendan Williams
Feb 14, 2020
An oft-repeated canard that bedevils advocates for facility-based care is the assertion, by an organization that peddles Medicare insurance products, that “90% of people don’t want to be in a nursing...
‘Gimmick’ bashing from the expert
By
Brendan Williams
Dec 02, 2019
Seema Verma, administrator for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is at it again with a proposed rule that purports “to eliminate state financing gimmicks that cost the federal government...
Ideology trumps rationality in Tennessee block grant proposal
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 30, 2019
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan once admitted he had been “dreaming” of cutting Medicaid since his college kegger days. But one person’s dream can be another’s nightmare. That’s now the case for...
Providing a living wage
By
Brendan Williams
Jul 29, 2019
We are on an unsustainable trajectory for long-term care if even a progressive state like Washington is faltering.