Post by pavel on Apr 7, 2016 17:30:25 GMT -6
As Texans await for a resolution to the Medicaid waiver question, another potential crisis is looming in nursing homes across the state. Advocates for the medical staff at those facilities are saying employees are leaving the field to take better paying jobs at Wendy’s or McDonald’s.
Bobby Blanchard, a reporter with the Dallas Morning News, says the issue, in part, stems from Medicaid reimbursement rates in Texas.
“Texas had the third lowest Medicaid reimbursement rate,” Blanchard says. “The only states that have lower rates are South Dakota and Illinois. In Texas it’s so low that many nursing homes actually spend more on Medicaid patients than they are reimbursed.”
That’s particularly troubling for nursing homes, Blanchard says, because 85 percent of their patients are either Medicaid- or Medicare-dependent.
Read more: www.texasstandard.org/stories/medicaid-reimbursement-rates-are-costing-nursing-homes-money-staff/
Bobby Blanchard, a reporter with the Dallas Morning News, says the issue, in part, stems from Medicaid reimbursement rates in Texas.
“Texas had the third lowest Medicaid reimbursement rate,” Blanchard says. “The only states that have lower rates are South Dakota and Illinois. In Texas it’s so low that many nursing homes actually spend more on Medicaid patients than they are reimbursed.”
That’s particularly troubling for nursing homes, Blanchard says, because 85 percent of their patients are either Medicaid- or Medicare-dependent.
Read more: www.texasstandard.org/stories/medicaid-reimbursement-rates-are-costing-nursing-homes-money-staff/