Nursing Home Antipsychotic Legislation Set Aside

The U.S. Senate did not approve legislation that would strengthen regulations for antipsychotic use in nursing homes, despite overwhelmingly passing a bill it was attached to on Thursday.

Last week, Sens. Herb Kohl (D-WI), Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) proposed a regulation that would have standardized protocols for obtaining informed consent before administering antipsychotics for off-label use. The legislation was proposed as an amendment to an existing Food and Drug Administration reauthorization bill (S. 3187), which was passed by the Senate in a 96-1 vote Thursday.

However, a spokesman for the Special Senate Committee on Aging told McKnight’s that the nursing home regulation was not voted on and wasn’t included in the manager’s amendment.

He added that “the amendment was filed to help bring some needed attention to the widespread problem of the misuse of the antipsychotics among frail elders.” Going forward, he said Kohl and Grassley will “look at other legislative vehicles or stand-alone legislation.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had urged quick passage of the bill, without many amendments. Senators agreed to consider just 17 of them.

Source:
Nursing Home Antipsychotic Legislation Set Aside

Nurse’s License Revoked for Financial Exploitation of Nursing Home Resident

The license of a nurse from Staunton has been revoked by state officials for financial exploitation of a nursing-home resident in Maryville.

Documents from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said licensed practical nurse Lisa DeVries “exhibited multiple instances of unethical and professional activities.”

While working at Maryville Manor, now known as Liberty Village, DeVries accepted a $500 check from a resident and deposited the check into her personal account in December 2009, according to state documents.

DeVries was fired by Maryville Manor two months later, but never reported the termination to the state, the documents stated.

Full Article and Source:
Area Medical Professionals Disciplined by the State

U.S. OKs Increase in Nursing Home Tax to Bring in More Medicaid Money

Federal authorities have approved a nursing home bed tax that will allow Illinois to collect more than $100 million a year in new Medicaid money that officials say will be used to boost facility staffing levels and implement other safety reforms mandated by a landmark 2010 overhaul, the Tribune has learned.

Gov. Pat Quinn pushed hard for the tax as a way to hire more state inspectors and finance other reforms in Illinois’ troubled long-term care system without dipping into the state’s already-depleted coffers.

“This is positive news for people who live in a nursing home or have a loved one living in a nursing home,” said a statement from Quinn. “It means that our nursing homes get the funds that they need to continue improving safety and the quality of services.”

Still, the AARP and some leading advocates for the elderly and disabled raised concerns about the measure, arguing that it will provide a windfall for substandard, profit-making facilities while not doing enough to move thousands of younger mentally ill adults out of nursing homes and into community settings where they could get better care.

Because much of the bed tax will be returned to the nursing homes via the Medicaid program, which funds health care for the poor, facilities with fewer indigent patients will recoup less money. Illinois’ nonprofit nursing homes, which generally serve small numbers of Medicaid clients, argue that the tax will penalize them unfairly.

“It is a bad plan for good homes and a good plan for bad homes,” said Kirk Riva, vice president of public policy at the Life Services Network, the association of nonprofit facilities. “We think it’s offensive.”

Full Article and Source:
U.S. OKs Increase in Nursing Home Tax to Bring in More Medicaid Money