We at Basic American Medical would like to bring to you the most interesting news in long-term care this week from AHCA/NCAL Gazette.

Long-term care costs rise 3.3 percent in 2009

By Chesley Ledue, Healthcare Finance News. October 28, 2009  

A new survey: the 2009 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services and Home Care Costs, has found that costs for both nursing home care and assisted living facilities rose 3.3 percent  from 2008 to 2009.

“These across-the-board increases may be surprising to many given the economy over the past year,” said Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “But while the Consumer Price Index decreased overall during the past year, costs for medical care are 3.3 percent higher, which parallels our findings on long-term care.”

The full survey can be downloaded from www.maturemarketinstitute.com  under “What’s New.” It can also be ordered by e-mailing, maturemarketinstitute@metlife.com, or by writing to: MetLife Mature Market Institute, 57 Greens Farms Road, Westport, CT 06880.

House Democrats unveil healthcare legislation including public option

The plan would offer a U.S.-run insurance program but drop cost controls backed by liberals. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the compromise would make healthcare more affordable for the middle class.

By Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times.  October 29, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today unveiled a compromised health bill (H.R. 3962), saying: “Today, we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality healthcare available for all Americans.”

The bill includes strong regulation of the insurance industry, a mandate that all Americans buy health insurance, and subsidies for the poor. It also requires all large employers to provide health coverage for their employees.  Medicaid will be expanded to cover all Americans making less than 150 percent of the poverty level.

Transcript: CQ Transcript Wire, Washington Post

DEA crackdown hurts nursing home residents who need pain relief

By Carrie Johnson, Washington Post. Oct 29, 2009 

Tighter controls on pain medications such as morphine and Percocet are causing delays in dispensing these essential drugs to patients and seniors in long-term-care facilities, according to a letter sent to Atty. General Eric H. Holder, Jr. by   Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and  Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

The law “fails to recognize how prescribing practitioners and the nurses who work for long-term care facilities and hospice programs actually order prescription medications,” Kohl and Whitehouse wrote. Delays can lead to “adverse health outcomes and unnecessary rehospitalizations, not to mention needless suffering,” they said.

Nurses may join big union

By Robert Weisman, Boston Globe. Oct 29, 2009 

Unionized nurses in Massachusetts are considering joining California and more than 20 other states to create a 150,000-member union called National Nurses United. The group would push for state mandates requiring higher nurse staffing levels in health care facilities.

House calls as cost-saver in health care reform?

By Pauline Arrillaga, Associated Press. Victoria Advocate. Oct 28, 2009 

A Richmond, Virginia geriatrician, who is head of general medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center has a mission: to convince Congress that old-fashioned house calls to high-risk, high-cost Medicare patients could save money by reducing emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

Florida’s 2.6 Million Medicaid Recipients Can Now Access Their Personal Health Records Online

By The Associated Press. Oct 28, 1:45 PM 

Florida is the first state to allow access to Medicaid records online. My Florida Health eBook and My Florida eBaby Book will allow Medicaid patients to manage their medical records via the Web.  

Medicare, Medicaid fraud summit being considered

By The Associated Press. San Francisco Chronicle. Oct 28, 2009 

William Corr, deputy HHS secretary, yesterday told the Senate Judiciary Committee that a Medicare, Medicaid fraud summit would ramp up efforts to find and prosecute fraud in government health systems. “We are identifying perpetrators of fraud, recovering the money they stole and removing them from federal health programs providing health care coverage to elderly, low-income and disabled beneficiaries,” Corr said.