Target: Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Administrator of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Goal: Fix broken nursing home rating system that obscures serious offenses and puts at-risk populations in danger.
Families who must make tough decisions about sending a loved one to a nursing home or assisted living site often rely on federal rating systems to ensure their affected family member’s health and well-being. Yet a recent expose revealed serious and potentially dangerous flaws within this system. In fact, many incidents that the public should know about go undisclosed.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is in charge of a nursing home rating system called Care Compare. This system assigns facilities one to five-star ratings, mostly derived from annual inspections. But many reported violations that would diminish a nursing home’s rating do not make it into the system. In some cases, inspectors seemingly go easy on the facilities. For example, in a two-year period over 2,000 nursing homes with a five-star rating had citations issued against them for allegedly improper protocols to protect against disease. An additional 40 five-star facilities were cited for suspected sexual abuse against residents, but these cases apparently did not meet the “serious violation” criteria.
Even when citations are reported to higher-ups, they often are not catalogued because of technical glitches or because of lengthy appeals processes that can take several months or years. The appeals system itself has been the subject of scrutiny as well. For one, a process that is supposed to take no longer than 60 days is routinely prolonged. Worse still, alleged victims and families are frequently left out of the process altogether. To compound the problems, these hearings are notoriously secretive and their details not made available to the public.
These fundamental flaws in the system mislead families, lead to uninformed decisions, and adversely impact the livelihoods of countless senior and disabled citizens. Sign the petition below to demand leaders build a better framework that safeguards the most vulnerable.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Ms. Brooks-LaSure,
A major newspaper has done what this agency will not. They have revealed the depth to which the Care Compare nursing home rating system is broken. This issue of consumer protection goes much deeper than a faulty good or a broken device. Errors in this system can endanger people’s lives…the very individuals who need the most aid and assistance.
Whether the issue is overly lenient inspectors, obscure and lengthy appeals processes, an anti-victim mentality, technical flaws, or all of the above, this process needs urgent reform. Please undertake a comprehensive review of your nursing facility rating system and make the necessary changes. Ensure those five-star ratings do not actually reflect frequent offenses and violations.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Matthias Zomer
There must be oversight in senior homes. everything such as hostels, labs, and nursing homes are run by corporations. The don’t care about the residents they care only about the amount of money coming in from each person. This is a vile way to run a business. Everyone yells out no government oversight but these corporations are going to bilk families out of money and give residents miserable lives. Even now staff are not vaccinated thus residents are not safe. It’s really a total scam. In today’s world people do not have time for caregiving so these corporations continue to rack up money without having to spend anything or give families what they are paying for which is valid care for their loved one.
Sending your loved ones to those homes is, in oher words, precipitating their deaths — two diapers a day, taking away their trays when some don’t want or cannot feed themselves, let them sleep all day long so employees will have it nice and easy, administering sedatives before they home to quieting them down for a while so the day attendants can go home in the meantime, knowing that the poor patients will be up al night long … this happens whether is a government or a private facility for senior citizens.
I agree with you 100% because I worked as a host in a private
senior living residence, and I witnessed all what you say,
noticing that only the residents who had hired their a private
attendant, were treated differently.
Hospice Care is very Important – So is choosing
the Right one
CONSIDERING THAT A ‘HOSPICE’ IS THE LAST HOME OF A PERSON, THERE SHOULD BE RULES TO MAKE LIFE MORE HAPPY FOR PATIENTS CONDEMNED TO DIE EITHER BY THE DECISION OF THEIR FAMILY OR BY THE DOCTOR
It seems horrible to me the use of morphine, especially when it’s applied to a person to hasten death in orden to make room for ‘someone else condemned to death either by a doctor in an hospice or nursing home or by the family to save money.
THAT’S NOtHING BUT A CRIME!