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Home and Community Based News Spotlight

2024-04-02 Spotlight: Governor Healey’s budget proposal threatens 50 years of disability rights

Governor Healey’s budget proposal threatens 50 years of disability rights *Boston Globe, March 28, 2024By Alex Green Her proposal to slash fundamental personal care services for the disabled is baffling. Every day, more than 40,000 Massachusetts residents wake up in their own beds and go about their lives thanks to a personal care attendant. These […]

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Home and Community Based Long Term Services and Support News Spotlight

2024-04-02 Spotlight: The Wisdom of Humpty Dumpty

By Richard MooreDignityMA’s poet laureate (aka, Chair, DignityMA’s Legislative Workgroup), with an AI assist Humpty Dumpty, policy bold,Sat on a wall, so we’re told.A vision of streamlining, a central core,For long-term care, they’d have us explore. All the Governor’s horses, men and women,Would centralize forms, again and again.No more local helpers, with faces so kind,Just […]

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Facilities Long Term Services and Support News Spotlight

2024-03-19 Spotlight: How for-profit nursing home regulators can use the powers they already have to fix growing problems with poor-quality care

By Charlene Harrington, RN, PhD, University of San FranciscoThe Conversation, March 14, 2024 Governments at both state and federal levels have yet to fully wield their authority to fight poor-quality care at for-profit nursing homes nationwide, leaving the pressing need for elder care accountability unmet. Medicare has the power to improve financial accountability at nursing […]

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Facilities News Spotlight

2024-03-19 Spotlight: For-profit nursing homes are cutting corners on safety and draining resources with financial shenanigans − especially at midsize chains that dodge public scrutiny

By Charlene Harrington, RN, PhD, University of San Francisco, and investigative journalist Sean CampbellThe Conversation, March 14, 2024 For-profit nursing homes are cutting corners on safety and draining resources with financial shenanigans − especially at midsize chains that dodge public scrutiny The care at Landmark of Louisville Rehabilitation and Nursing was abysmal when state inspectors […]

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Long Term Services and Support News Study Session

Study Session – Care Planning Made Simple & the New POLST Program

Wednesday, March 13, 2024Presenter: Ellen DiPaola, JD, President & CEO, Honoring Choices Massachusetts Topics covered: Download the Presentation Slides: Health Care Planning Made Simple and the new POLST Program (pptx format)

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Facilities News Spotlight

2024-03-11 Spotlight: The ‘hidden profits’ in the nursing home industry

University of California Los AngelesBy Dr. Ashvin Gandhi and Dr. Andrew OlenskiMarch 4, 2024Summary prepared by Becker’s Hospital Review A recent study led by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles study found reported nursing home profits may reflect only 37.1% of total profits as of 2019, suggesting a practice of profit extraction from […]

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Advocacy Facilities Home and Community Based Housing Long Term Services and Support News Overview

Benjamin Healthcare Center Saga

The news below, on Benjamin Healthcare Center’s announced closing, is listed most recent first. DignityMA Offers Help to Attorney Feaster Below are excerpts from an April 5 email sent to Attorney Feaster as he begins to navigate the conditions and options at Benjamin Health Care Center. Best case is for the Center to remain open, […]

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Facilities News Perspective

DignityMA Globe Letters on Private Equity

Both former Senator Richard Moore and Margaret Morganroth Gullette published Letters to the Editor in the March 5 Boston Globe in response to several articles on the problems of Steward Health Care and private equity. Both letters are reprinted below. For-profit tendrils are making their way into nursing homes, other sites by Richard T. Moore […]

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Facilities Long Term Services and Support News Spotlight

2024-03-05 Spotlight: Shedding Light on Nursing Home Industry Spending and Profits

Shedding Light on Nursing Home Industry Spending and Profits Long Term Care Community ConnectionTuesday, March 19, 2024, 1:00 p.m. On this program, Tyler Braun (Weill Cornell Medical College) discusses findings of a new study that unveils the obscured financial landscape of U.S. nursing homes. Register for LTCCC’s March 19 Webinar

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Advocacy Facilities Long Term Services and Support News

DignityMA meets with DPH and EOHHS

On February 2, several DignityMA members met with Secretary Kate Walsh of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Dr. Robert Goldstein, Commissioner of the Department of Public Health. DignityMA presented their thoughts and recommendations regarding various issues affecting the delivery of long-term services and care in the Commonwealth especially those involving nursing […]

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