California rethinks nursing homes funding after COVID-19
Lawmakers and patient advocates say the best way to improve care is to boost staffing, and that the best way to achieve that is to alter funding.
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Lawmakers and patient advocates say the best way to improve care is to boost staffing, and that the best way to achieve that is to alter funding.
About 1 in 8 Californians who have died of covid lived in a nursing home. They were among the state's most frail residents: nearly 9,400 mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles whom Californians entrusted to a nursing home's care. An additional 56,275 confirmed covid cases among nursing home residents weren't fatal.
COVID-19's unrelenting spread exposed deep, systemic problems with the quality of care — or lack thereof — at nursing homes across the country.
Approximately one in eight Californians who died of COVID lived in a nursing home.
It could be one of the biggest legislative fights in California - holding nursing homes accountable for care by tying Medicaid funding to performance.