ICYMI: Florida Politics: Proposed Nursing Home Payment System Raises Serious Concern

Proposed Nursing Home Payment System Raises Serious Concern
By Brian Robare
I wanted to take a moment to alert Floridians to The Estates’, a Lakeland-based nursing home, significant concerns with the Florida Health Care Association’s (FHCA) plan, which would change the way nursing homes are paid, under consideration in the Florida Legislature.
The FHCA is asserting that this prospective payment system (PPS) plan will incentivize nursing homes to make renovations and improvements that will improve and enhance the resident’s quality of life. As a longtime member of FHCA, we are disappointed that they would place a higher priority on the building than on resident care.
At the Estates, we have long prided ourselves on our high staffing ratios, and with the care provided to the residents and families, we are privileged to serve. A “modernized dining room” does not improve that quality of care, and I consider it shameful that they would propose the redistribution of money from communities that have continually invested the money needed to make renovations and improvements to communities that have shirked this responsibility.
If passed, this plan will financially hurt our nursing home and Florida Presbyterian Homes.
To illustrate, our nursing home stands to lose $166,000 under this proposed plan. Frankly, I am stunned that the Florida House or Senate would even consider a plan that provides an additional $26 million to a nursing home chain that just had a $374 million judgment for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Consulate Healthcare’s 79 nursing homes in the state have an average star rating of 2.3 out of 5, and yet the plan is to reward their efforts with an additional $26 million to modernize dining rooms and improve the look of their buildings.
It’s imperative that any changes to the payment model for nursing homes are accomplished when all of the stakeholders are offered a seat at the table to develop a plan that advances the goal of providing quality care. At The Estates, we believe in the adage of slow and right versus fast and wrong.
This plan is the epitome of fast, and wrong.
On behalf of residents, families and staff at The Estates, I am asking that lawmakers reject the plan proposed by the FHCA and remain resolute that any PPS plan for nursing homes must include an open discussion by all of the stakeholders and must require that any additional funds to go improving the quality of care for the residents.
Finally, we ask that lawmakers advocate for slow and right versus fast and wrong and insist that any additional money advances the quality of care and does not further inflate the bottom line of companies that seem to focus on what is best for them and not on what is best for the residents and families they serve.
Brian L. Robare is CEO and Executive Director at the Estates at Carpenters, located in Lakeland.