NY Tough campaign can’t disguise nursing home cuts that worsened COVID-19 struggles
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 10, 2021
No long-term care advocate is surprised by what was hiding behind Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mask of self-congratulatory competence. Indeed, his reckless disregard for the lives of nursing home residents in...
Nursing Home Quality Incentive Program? Hardly
By
Brendan Williams
Dec 08, 2020
Was any federal program ever more misnamed than the “Nursing Home Quality Incentive Program”? Rather than reward nursing home quality, it has effectively rewarded states that have out-of-control COVID-19...
With POC testing strategy, federal government continues to respond poorly to COVID-19 in nursing homes
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 08, 2020
In the federal government’s fight against COVID-19, nursing homes have effectively been left for dead. Despite a death count that began with the February outbreak in a Kirkland, Washington, nursing...
Useless PPE befitting federal nursing home neglect
By
Brendan Williams
Jul 29, 2020
According to Paraprofessional Health Institute data, there were 581,000 nursing assistants working in nursing homes in 2018. Their median wage was just $13.38 an hour. Ninety-two percent were women,...
Hospitals are heroic, while nursing homes are always to blame
By
Brendan Williams
Apr 29, 2020
Hospitals have always enjoyed “most favored nation” status in healthcare, and that’s even more true during the COVID-19 pandemic. But apparently you can’t have heroes without villains. While lauding...
Facts, not anecdotes, must guide long-term care policy
By
Brendan Williams
Feb 14, 2020
An oft-repeated canard that bedevils advocates for facility-based care is the assertion, by an organization that peddles Medicare insurance products, that “90% of people don’t want to be in a nursing...
‘Gimmick’ bashing from the expert
By
Brendan Williams
Dec 02, 2019
Seema Verma, administrator for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is at it again with a proposed rule that purports “to eliminate state financing gimmicks that cost the federal government...
Ideology trumps rationality in Tennessee block grant proposal
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 30, 2019
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan once admitted he had been “dreaming” of cutting Medicaid since his college kegger days. But one person’s dream can be another’s nightmare. That’s now the case for...
Block grants won’t lead to cost-cutting efficiency
By
Brendan Williams
May 31, 2019
Eviscerating the social safety net through block grants can only further contribute to a dystopian future for aging adults and all others on Medicaid.
Sen. Grassley fails to recognize the real neglect
By
Brendan Williams
Apr 19, 2019
Sen. Chuck Grassley has used his position to attack long-term care in headline-grabbing ways.