Senate Bill Could Impose Tougher Penalties With the serious elder abuse problems in residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) that have been coming to light in recent months, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to California residents that a new senate bill aims to “give California regulators the power…
Profiting from Bad Hospice Ethics Last week, we discussed a recent phenomenon in the hospice care industry that’s quickly becoming an elder abuse concern. Specifically, hospice—a form of care designed to allow “patients to die at home or in other familiar surroundings,” according to an article in the Washington Post—has…
A few days ago, Los Angeles’ local ABC 10 News released an article about the Ensign Group’s agreement to a $48 million settlement related to claims of Medicare billing fraud at six nursing facilities in Southern California. And the Medicare fraud wasn’t the worst of it. According to the article,…
Assisted living facilities are licensed as Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly, and are generally thought of as living environments for people who need help with one or more activities of daily living, but are otherwise pretty healthy. In fact, the regulations covering RCFEs are designed with this in mind.…
Does your elderly parent have dementia? Many California residents live with dementia, and their children and family members worry about what kind of care is best for a dementia patient. A recent article in U-T San Diego explained the different options for dementia care. According to Dr. Diane Darby Beach,…
Over the past few weeks, nursing home abuse and neglect in California has made local and national news. These stories beg the question: are assisted living facilities safe in California? Elder advocates might argue that reforms are in the works, but facilities across the state continue to receive fines and…
With investigative help from UT San Diego, the Center for Health Reporting of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) conducted a study of nursing home deaths and nursing home abuse in San Diego County. Early this month, UT San Diego reported the shocking system failures when it comes to assisted living…
In mid-August, Families for Better Care released its first “Nursing Home Report Card,” which is part of a “project that analyzes, compares, and ranks states’ nursing home quality.” On the California report card, our state only earned a “C” grade, coming in at 28th place in the United States. In…
It’s not an area of care that we typically associate with nursing homes, but is your loved one getting access to sufficient dental care? Dental hygiene in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities is no small matter. Indeed, poor dental care can lead to serious health problems. When nursing centers don’t…
Earlier this summer, National Public Radio (NPR) aired a news story about the “Green House Project,” urging nursing homes to “move over” since “there’s something different” in town. Over the past ten years, according to NPR, more than 140 alternative nonprofit nursing homes have been built across the U.S. in…