Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law (NYT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/us/16nursing.html

Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — It is an oddity of American health care: Many nursing homes and home care agencies do not provide health insurance to their workers, or they pay wages so low that employees cannot afford the coverage that is offered. The numbers are stark. Among workers who provide hands-on care to nursing home residents, one in four has no health insurance. Among those who provide care to people living at home, one in three is uninsured.

The new health care law is supposed to fix the problem by guaranteeing access to affordable coverage for all. But many nursing homes and home care agencies, alarmed at the cost of providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands of health care workers, have started a lobbying effort seeking some kind of exemption or special treatment.

Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, the largest trade group for nursing homes, says the problem is that reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare, set by government agencies, do not pay them enough to offer their employees medical coverage. “We do not have much ability to increase prices because we are so dependent on Medicaid and Medicare” for revenue, he said. Mr. Parkinson acknowledged that when nursing homes do offer health insurance to employees, the benefits are often limited. The coverage “is probably not up to what will be required” by the federal law, he said.

Starting in 2014, the law will require employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer affordable coverage or risk paying a penalty. For a midsize nursing home, that penalty could easily exceed $200,000 a year. Nursing home executives are urging Congress and the Obama administration to spare them from the penalties... Charlene A. Harrington, a professor at the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, said it would be a mistake for Congress or the administration to relieve nursing homes of the obligation to provide coverage to employees...

good company with the corporations and unions that have been granted exemptions.

Tell me again, why this blatant gift to the insurance companies was such a grand idea?

on edit: surely there was no cash involved...

Not the parents of the rich and connected though, so they don't give a flying fart in the wind.

is paramount to taking care of the patients. Nursing homes are rife with germs, viruses, infections, even TB. The patients are at their most vulnerable. Their caregivers need to be have access to medical care based on their choice of work.

injury and musculoskeletal disorders. Nursing home workers are at risk daily for injury due to the large number of pt. transfers, even practising the best safety procedures won't always protect you. Even if they won't consider the risk for workers, the residents are so vulnerable to infection and disease you would think the cost alone of treating additional illness would make them realize care-giver health should be a priority.