Several years ago the Maine Legislature established a Commission to investigate why nursing homes had closed in the towns of Calais, Lubec and Pittsfield. I was a member of this bi-partisan effort. What was discovered is that the meager increases provided for caring for MaineCare clients by the King and Baldacci administrations had led to an industry on the verge of financial collapse. Nursing facilities were using profits from privately funded or Medicare clients to offset growing MaineCare losses to stay afloat. If they didn’t have many of the profit-making clients, they were doomed financially.
The Commission had legislation passed that called for increasing MaineCare payments to actual expenditures every two years (instead of every five to eight years as had been the case) and for an annual cost of living to pay for higher food/supply costs and employee wages. On July 1, 2014, Maine nursing homes received an increase for re-basing their payments to 2011 actual expenses. Due to lack of funds, the increase only covered about 95 percent of 2011 expenses, with the balance to be made up as of July 1, 2015, with an inflation increase. The industry thanked Paul LePage for being the first Governor to heed our cries for financial help in nearly 20 years.
Less than a year has passed since the first increase prompted by the study commission and Legislative leadership is already reducing the amount of Governor LePage’s nursing home budget, which the Governor put in per the Commission’s recommendations. How quickly some people forget!
The public shake their heads when they read of nursing home horror stories about inadequate staffing and deplorable conditions. They don’t make the connection that it costs money to provide quality care. If the public is going to sit back and let the Legislature undo what Democrats and Republicans together said needed to be done to keep more nursing homes from closing, then the horror stories and closings will continue.
Nursing home operators have asked for over 20 years to be paid break-even payments and cannot seem to get that. Meanwhile grocery stores sell food to food stamp recipients at a fair profit as do the heating oil dealers to LIHEAP clients. Maybe we should simply acknowledge that old sick people don’t matter enough to our legislative leaders. Actions speak louder than words. Please call your local legislator today!
Phil Cyr is the administrator of the Caribou Rehab and Nursing Center and has been a licensed nursing home administrator for 39 years.
