Texas Nursing Homes Seeking More Medicaid Assistance

According to reporting in KUT, nursing homes in Texas are petitioning lawmakers to give them more Medicaid assistance so that they can provide services to the state’s many seniors. At the same time that the number of senior citizens in need of long-term care has increased, funding for nursing homes has decreased. This means that there are fewer places for people to go and, at the same time, there is more need than ever for qualified facilities to take care of the elderly.

Not Always Permanent

A representative of a nursing home quoted in the story notes that not all of the people who go to nursing homes go there on a permanent basis. In some cases, nursing homes serve as places where people can convalesce and be rehabilitated before going back home after an illness or a medical treatment. In this way, nursing homes can serve as a good way to actually keep medical costs down by helping people become independent once again.
According to that same representative, the recent cuts in the budget in Texas have resulted in nursing homes freezing the amount of hiring that they are doing. It has also resulted in nursing homes receiving low reimbursement rates.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has already made a suggestion that long-term care expenditures should increase in the near future, according to the reporting.

Understaffed

In addition to creating a hardship for people who need nursing home care but who may not be able to find it, nursing homes that cannot afford to hire enough staff can end up presenting a genuine hazard to their residents. Without adequate staff, residents may not receive the level of care that they need and, in some cases, they may end up being neglected outright. Even though times may be tough, nursing homes are still responsible for delivering competent and effective care to their patients.
A Dallas nursing home abuse attorney may be able to help you if you or a family member has been neglected in a nursing home. In situations where there isn’t enough staff to take care of the residents, the consequences to those residents can be grim. They can even be life-threatening, in some circumstances. If the level of nursing home care delivered did not live up to professional standards, the facility can sometimes be sued to get compensation for the family and the resident.