by Diane Archer
“Kaiser Health News reports on a ghastly phenomenon that appears all too common for people with Medicare in some nursing homes. To increase their revenues, nursing homes create conditions that lead residents to be rehospitalized. Medicare is now changing its nursing home payment policies to try to align nursing home financial incentives to deter poor care.
“KHN describes one case in which a nursing home literally dropped a resident, causing a hip fracture, and creating a reason to move the resident to a nursing home. That led to a lawsuit from the patient’s family and a settlement of $1.4 million by Richmond Pines Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in North Carolina.
“All too frequently patients are discharged from hospital to a nursing home and return to hospital in less than a month. One in five Medicare patients are back in hospital after discharge in less than 30 days.”
