News about the New York Medicaid system has been surprisingly positive over the past few weeks. While stories of doom and gloom dominate federal discussions of the program, in our state there has actually been cause for optimism. Most prominently, Governor Cuomo recently announced that while the program is still quite expensive, the cost increases last year stayed below the self-imposed caps set to curb spending growth. This financial goal was attained even though the program added nearly 104,000 participants–essentially reaching a total of 5 million New Yorkers in the program.
These money-saving goals were met thanks in part to the work of the state’s Medicaid Task Force which was charged with finding ways to trim program expenses. Observers note that one important way this was achieved was by reducing expensive hospital admission rates and increasing usage of primary care. Our New York Medicaid attorneys appreciate that the state’s ability to meet this goals is good news for area seniors who rely on the program for their long-term care needs.
However, this one year cost curbing effort, while positive, does not mean that the all concerns about the program have been resolved. There are still many issues left to face to ensure local seniors who need it have access to this program. For one thing, the program’s expenses are still hitting local governments particularly hard. The Times Herald-Record discussed this issue in a story published this morning. County executives from Orange, Ulster, and Dutchess counties met yesterday to talk about a range of issues–Medicaid was by far the most pressing concern.
Ulster County executive Mike Hein explained how he believed that the funding systems of the program were a clear example “of the state dumping an expense on localities.” What is particularly frustrating to these executives is the fact that while local government pay essentially half of the state Medicaid costs, localities have no control over the program. Our New York Medicaid lawyers realize that these very concerns are what have
Article source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/NewYorkElderLawAttorneyBlogCom/~3/PdYJSdJ2A8g/county-executives-voice-concer.html
The Louisville Courier Jornal reported the jury’s verdict in a recent two week nursing home neglect trial against Treyton Oak Towers. The jury awarded $8 million in damages to the estate of a retired surgeon whose legs were broken becuase of neglect. Dr. David Griffin died less than two months after he was improperly transferred from a chair into his bed causing fractures. The plaintiffs claimed Griffin was transferred without a lift and by only one nursing assistant, in violation of the nursing home’s care plan, which required two assistants.
The worse part is that Defendants tried to cover up what happened. Employees were ordered to change medical records to cover the incident up. This happens all the time in nursing homes.
The verdict was returned after the jury deliberated for about two hours and included $2 million for pain and suffering, $1 million for violating the state nursing home statute and $5 million in punitive damages.
Tags: Verdicts/Settlements, bones, broken, cover, damages, fractures, improper, punitives, transfer, up, verdict
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/Ws2cNMsjFKc/
Levin Perconti’s Illinois Nursing Home blog had a great article on the value and need for video cameras to prevent abuse and neglect in nursing homes.
“Our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer John J. Perconti was quoted this week in a Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article on the role that video cameras are playing in the courtrooms. The article touched on the effect that the increased use of surveillance cameras might have on the strategies of both plaintiff and defense attorneys. As local residents are aware, Chicago’s use of camera technology to monitor its corners and streets is growing rapidly. It is hard to go anywhere without being recorded by some sort of video device. In fact, while our city has certainly taken advantage of the surveillance tools as of late, we are actually a bit behind the curve. Other large cities (particularly international ones) have been using video cameras in more intrusive ways for years.
Not only is the city itself using these cameras, but many private businesses similarly monitor their surroundings as a safety tool. The captured footage is often crucial evidence when it records the incidents that at the heart of injury lawsuits. For example, our Illinois injury attorney John Perconti discussed a nursing home neglect case of ours involving a resident who fell outside of a senior center, suffering severe injuries that ultimately killed him. Attorney Perconti explained how the video camera mounted by outside an adult day care center caught the entire event.
The recording shows the senior using a walker, walking down a ramp toward a bus. Perconti explained, “He caught the side slope of the ramp and this causes him to fall sideways, striking his head on the pavement.” Perconti went
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/aBkzW0t7ihA/
Nursing home residents with dementia who use average doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are three times more likely to have an injurious fall than similar people who don’t use these drugs. The association can be seen in people who use low doses of SSRIs and the risk increases as people take higher doses. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Falls are a major health problem in nursing home residents with dementia. In nursing homes one-third of all falls result in an injury.
Many nursing home residents with dementia are treated with antidepressants. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are generally considered the treatment of choice. “Our study also discovered that the risk of an injurious fall increased even more if the residents were also given hypnotic or sedative drugs as sleeping pills,” said lead author Carolyn Shanty Sterke, who works in the Section of Geriatric Medicine at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ”Physicians should be cautious in prescribing SSRIs to older people with dementia, even at low doses,” says Sterke.
The incident reports showed that 152 of the 248 residents (61.5%) sustained 683 falls. This corresponds to a fall incidence of 2.9 falls per person-year. Thirty-eight residents had a single fall, but 114 fell frequently. Two hundred twenty falls resulted in injury or death. Of these 10 were hip fractures, 11 were other fractures and 198 were injuries such as grazes, open wounds, sprains, bruises, and swellings. One person died after falling.
“Staff in residential homes are always concerned about reducing the chance of people falling and I think we should consider developing new treatment protocols that take into account the increased risk of falling that occurs when you give people SSRIs,” says Sterke.
See also story at USAToday.
More information: Dose-response relationship between Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Injurious falls: A study in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia. Carolyn S Sterke, Gijsbertus Ziere, Ed F. van Beeck, Caspar W. N. Looman Tischa
Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/jajeg26p9OM/
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Article source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/PennsylvaniaNursingHomeAbuseLawyerBlogCom/~3/DCJQpJdjClY/find-heart-disease-early-let-m.html