Readers,
Kitsap Health and Rehabilitation Center in Bremerton is slated to close in July and patients are being relocated now. It’s among the oldest and smallest nursing homes in the area, and had quite a few Medicaid patients. But with the current Medicaid reimbursement rate only covering 70 percent of the true cost of patient care, the for-profit corporation was in very much a losing proposition. That and the corporation was facing $1.5 million in upgrades there. See my story soon. Residents and families, please call me now as I prepare my story. I want to hear where you’re going.
Rachel Pritchett, reporter
(360) 475-3783
Sadly, we may be seeing more of this. With the rising cost of providing care and the plumetting reimbursements, for-profit healthcare service companies cannot survive. Healthcare should not be a for-profit industry, anyway. It’s blood money!
Blood money? Why would for profit health-care service company dollars earned mean blood money and the non-profit health-care service company mean non-bloody money?
If health care service companies were paid for improving the health of each patient, maybe there would be fewer patients and more money for the health care company.
The way they seem to be run is to take care of the patients with the fewest staff possible for the lowest pay possible.
Why not pay the staff for patient improvement, rather than sedate them to make them easier to care for and often leading to less exercise leading to no quality of life for the patient.
As I see it… Sharon O”Hara