Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing homes are meant to be a safe haven for the elderly to cared for in their golden years and instead of become a nightmare for a lot who have been subjected to countless acts of abuse and neglect. Furthermore, the significant others of those in nursing homes are subjected to highly stressful conditions by having to meet harsh economic requirements.

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, there are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that currently care for 1.6 million residents, a figure expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. In past years, there have been reports that nearly 1/3 of all nursing homes have been cited for abuse violations. Each year the number of incidents increases while there is a significant underreporting of nursing home abuse and neglect.

More than twice as many nursing homes were cited for abuse in 2006 and with numbers expected to quadruple these numbers are going to rise. Reports show that there are thousands upon thousands of abuse cases yearly and investigators believe many violations go undetected or are simply not reported, leading federal regulations to believe the problem is underestimated. Even when serious issues have been identified federal and state enforcement policies have not been effective in ensuring that the issues are corrected and remain corrected.

The first issue I have found with abuse of the elderly in nursing homes is economic. Medicaid and Medicare which cover more than two-thirds of residents in nursing homes cost more than $75 billion a year. Medicaid is a federal program administered at the state level that provides health care for low income individuals. To qualify for Medicaid your income and assets must be under a certain level, which is determined by your state. Most states use a percentage of the Federal Poverty guidelines as a guide for eligibility. “In Maryland and 47 contiguous states and the District of Columbia any two person family can’t make more than $15,130 a year if they want to receive Medicaid benefits.” ("2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines, 2012) If it is determined that you make more than $15,130 a year, he or she entering the nursing home must enter as a private resident and spend down any assets to become eligible. As an example, in the case of my grandfather between his retirement from the Navy, his social security and my grandmother’s social security, my grandmother has to give his Navy retirement check and social security check to the nursing home and still pay $3,000 a month to the nursing home to spend her money down until Medicaid will step in to help her. This leaves her with barely any money. My issue is that Medicaid states that it doesn’t want the spouse that is not living in a nursing home to be destitute but in my grandmothers case it doesn’t seem like they are giving her an option. Medicaid can also require some payback