Many consumers are ill-informed about Medicare and Medicaid’s role in long-term care, and greater planning could help reduce the danger of soaring Medicaid costs, according to a new report from America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Over the next 20 years, federal and state governments are expected to spend $3.7 trillion on long-term care expenses, the report said. Between 2008 and 2027, annual Medicaid long-term care expenditures are projected to grow by 124% from $51.5 billion to $115.6 billion. AHIP represents most of the nation’s commercial insurers. Researchers at Strategic Affairs Forecasting and Paul A. London Associates conducted the report.

Too many people believe that Medicare will help pay for long-term care expenses, when actually it will provide only a limited amount of rehabilitative care, according to report authors. Up to two-thirds underestimate their potential need for long-term care, they note.

The $700 billion bailout plan signed by the president last week is likely to have a positive effect on long-term care housing, according to an expert from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

“The bailout should ease the credit crunch which is currently playing havoc with both the debt and equity markets that are so essential to tax credits,” affordable housing expert Nancy Libson from AAHSA, told McKnight’s.

“Many deals already in the works to build or renovate senior housing are looking for new equity investors,” she said. “Equity investors, if they stay in deals, are adjusting (reducing) their investments. When debt financing is necessary, interest rates are rising, making deals infeasible. The bill should provide relief in the debt and equity markets, providing a more stable financial system for this vital service for seniors.”

The legislation, which drew both praise and scorn from members of Congress, passed through the House after two weeks of heated debate and more than one failed vote. Finally, 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans gave their approval. The president signed it on Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had hoped at least 100 Republicans would vote for the measure in order to portray the bailout as being truly bipartisan

The Senate is likely to adopt a House version of an economic stimulus package that would infuse $14.7 billion into state Medicaid programs. 

While the House Friday passed its $60.8 billion stimulus bill, the Senate on Friday failed to pass its iteration, which would have given $19.6 billion in additional funds to state Medicaid programs. Still, even if the Senate approves the House bill, it may not pass. President Bush has vowed to veto the bills, saying they would do nothing to spur the economy and would only increase government spending.

Meanwhile, as of press time, the House failed to pass a $700 billion bailout package for the crippled financial sector. The House stimulus bill could actually become a “bargaining chip” between Congress and the president in negotiations over the bailout package, according to The New York Times.

The report, which was released this week, found that more than 90% of the nation’s nursing homes were cited for federal violations last year. While Georgia state officials say they agree with HHS’ assessment, they argue that the numbers look worse than they really are. A total 88% of Georgia’s nursing homes were cited, according to HHS. But speaking to Atlanta’s public radio station WABE 90.1 FM, a Georgia state health official said that most of those infractions were for minor offenses, like housekeeping and maintenance issues, or food issues.

Idaho health officials share much the same view of the HHS report. All of Idaho’s homes received a citation, according to the report. A CBS affiliate in Boise spoke to one Idaho health official who said that his state reports even the tiniest infractions, unlike other states. He notes that, while an average of 17% of nursing homes nationwide were cited for deficiencies that caused harm or danger to residents, that number was only 3% in Idaho.

Rhode Island fared much better than some other states, the report found. Some 76% of its nursing homes were cited for an infraction. And the average number of citations per home was 2.5, far lower than any other state in the union.

“It was gratifying to see that our state did better than anyone else with respect to the number and percentage of deficiencies,” Virginia Burke, president of the Rhode Island Health Care Association told McKnight’s.

But Burke, like her counterparts in other states, also doesn’t feel the survey process is entirely fair. It’s not a very good stand-alone measure of quality care, and a lot of it is arbitrary, she says.

“You have to look at a number of quality measures before you can make a broad statement about the quality of care in one state versus another,” Burke said.

More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of U.S. health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.

About 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to patients, said the report, by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition and abuse and neglect of patients.

Inspectors received 37,150 complaints about conditions in nursing homes last year, and they substantiated 39 percent of them, the report said. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.

About two-thirds of nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, while 27 percent are owned by nonprofit organizations and 6 percent by government entities, the report said.

Source: International Resource Report