ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
The Nursing Home Reform Law prohibits discrimination based on a person’s Medicaid status or eligibility. Medicaid rates, however, are often much lower than those paid by Medicare and private insurance residents, which can lead to residents being treated as second-class citizens in a nursing home.
Approximately two-thirds of nursing home residents are Medicaid- eligible, and those programs account for approximately half of nursing home revenues. Nursing home staff members sometimes claim that they are losing money on Medicaid patients. Since there is no way to know this without detailed audits, residents should avoid conversations or arguments about this. Instead, California nursing home attorneys say that residents who feel that they are being mistreated should be familiar with, and cite, the Nursing Home Reform Law prohibiting discrimination based on Medicaid status.
In receiving Medicaid certification, a nursing home is promising state and federal governments that it will abide by the Nursing Home Reform Law. California nursing home abuse attorneys say that if a nursing home truly feels that Medicaid reimbursement rates are too low, they should cancel their Medicaid certification and not accept Medicaid funds or patients at all.
Evans Law Firm, Inc. handles nursing home abuse cases, as well as other elder abuse cases and Medicare and Medicaid fraud lawsuits. If you or a loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse, please contact Evans Law Firm, Inc. at 415-441-8669 or via email at info@evanslaw.com.
