Crisis in Massachusetts nursing homes: MassHealth/Medicare payments are below cost.

One of the worst scandals of MassHealth's various instances of misconduct is its failure to pay the actual costs of the destitute nursing home patients who fall under their purview.  An OpEd article in today's Boston Globe highlights this.  Massachusetts has the dubious honor of being the fourth worst of the fifty states in paying these costs.  As a result, costs are shifted to private patients, the quality of care is short-changed for everyone, and nursing homes are going bankrupt.

Here is a paragraph for the article, "Nursing homes need funding as well as oversight" by Richard Bane, a former nursing home manager.

"The real story is that over the last decade Massachusetts Medicaid reimbursement of nursing homes has been stagnant, resulting in our Commonwealth having the dubious position of being the fourth worst state nationally in underfunding skilled services. For the two-thirds of residents in a nursing home in Massachusetts who are paid for by Medicaid, the state pays $37 per day below cost, at a rate of only $8 per hour of care."

The article can be accessed by clicking on the melancholy image below: