I ran across an article about a nursing home in Columbus, Ohio (Wexner Heritage Village) which complains it is losing money caring for Medicaid patients.
Wexner Heritage Village is shrinking its popular nursing home but adding assisted-living and home-care services to attract those with private insurance, while still trying to adhere to its mission of serving the Jewish poor. Why? Because it is “losing” $80 per day caring for Medicaid patients.
I have two observations/comments: First, Medicaid reimbursement payments are determined by each state and if they are insufficient then pressure should be brought to bare on state legislators. Second, I don’t believe for one minute that nursing homes are losing money on Medicaid patients. The last time I heard that complaint here in Virginia, I learned that part of the facility’s overhead was an outrageous monthly rent payment which was paid to the same individuals who operated the facility! Basically, the owners were skimming off the profit in the form of rent payments so they could say that the nursing home was not very profitable.
How gullible do these guys think we are?