Excerpt from: Keloland.com (click for full article)
South Dakota voters turned down nearly every ballot issue in Tuesday’s election, including Initiated Measure 15, which would have split a penny sales tax between Medicaid and education. The vote means more of the same for nursing homes, which have already seen substantial cuts in both Medicaid and Medicare funds.
“We've been open two months and we've only been able to admit Medicare and Medicaid residents in the last two weeks,” Brandon Bethany Home CEO/Administrator Dennis Sever said.
Though it’s state-of-the-art, Bethany Home of Brandon is experiencing an old and persistent problem. There isn't enough money to pay for its patients.
“We can't pass more on to our private pay and we're trying to limit what we can do there,” Sever said.
Sever said a Medicaid patient's daily cost is $160.58, but the home gets $120 per day. It's up to management to figure out a way to make up the difference.
When you add in recent Medicare cuts of more than ten percent, and a potential of even more cuts coming down the line, Sever says there's a lot to worry about for all South Dakota's nursing homes.
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