Nursing home care, funding system need overhaul, report says

NEW YORK (AP) — A major report says American nursing home residents are subjected to ineffective care and poor staffing, and that facility finances are shrouded in secrecy and regulatory lapses go unenforced. The study out Wednesday (April 6, 2022) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is calling for wholesale changes in the U.S. long-term care system in the wake of more than 150,000 resident COVID-19 deaths. Among their recommendations is the creation of a new national long-term care system that would exist outside of Medicaid, the program that is at the center of most long-term care financing. The likelihood of such a proposal passing Congress seems low in today’s political climate.