This page has quotes from the 2025 Dignity Digest issues, beginning in January, ordered by newest first.
For previous quotes, visit:
January 14, 2025
Everyone deserves to live a full life with dignity. Unfortunately, with healthcare for the elderly and disabled, dignity is often among the first values that are sacrificed. But the good news is that another path is possible. Since 2020, Dignity Alliance Massachusetts (DAM) has emerged as a grassroots coalition dedicated to dignified long-term care.
James Lomastro, PhD, Dignity in Action: From Institutional Failure to Decentralized Empowerment, Nonprofit Quarterly, January 6, 2025
Inadequate Personal Need Accounts (PNAs) compromise the human rights and basic needs of older adults, force them to make tough choices about what personal needs they will have to forego, and highlight underlying ageist attitudes embedded within policy. Addressing the deficiency of PNA should be an element of fulfilling this Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) priority.
Monica S. Aswani, DrPH and Paul R. Shafer, PhD, Medicaid Personal Needs Allowances—Overdue for Adjustment, JAMA Health Forum, January 3, 2025
“We are all aging. Growing older is not one agency’s focus. Across the Administration, policies and programs impact our older population. We are excited to work across the Administration to make Massachusetts a better place for residents of all ages to grow up and grow older, together.”
Secretary Robin Lipson, Executive Office of Aging & Independence, Governor Healey Officially Renames Executive Office of Elder Affairs to “Executive Office of Aging & Independence, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, January 9, 2025
“Renaming the Executive Office of Elder Affairs to the Executive Office of Aging & Independence not only demonstrates the Commonwealth’s commitment to serving our older adults but reflects that we are serious about addressing ageism in the state. As the aging population grows in Massachusetts, we must redefine what it means to advance in age and celebrate the benefits of achieving longevity.
Representative Thomas M. Stanley (D-Waltham), House Chair, Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, Governor Healey Officially Renames Executive Office of Elder Affairs to “Executive Office of Aging & Independence, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, January 9, 2025
“People must have access to the vital health care services they need. Hospital closures in recent years, however, have left patients worried about where they can access care and resulted in job losses for invaluable nurses and healthcare workers. Our audit of the Center for Health Information and Analysis revealed a startling lack of oversight around the financial conditions of hospitals in the Commonwealth.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, Audit Reveals Financial Conditions Not Appropriately Monitored at Hospitals, Including Steward Facilities, January 3, 2025)
When private equity takes over health care operators, like Prospect, they “bleed them dry.”
“The end result is almost always harmful both to patients and to hardworking hospital staff,” said Whitehouse. “As we make decisions about our health care system moving forward, we need to be very clear that the priorities for a hospital must be its patients and workers – not greedy private equity investors.”
U. S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI – D), Prospect files for bankruptcy, leaving its hospitals in R.I. and Conn. in limbo, Boston Globe, January 12, 2025
The “Industry-Specific Compliance Program Guidance for Skilled Nursing Facilities and Nursing Facilities” identifies key risk areas for potential fraud and abuse and provides strategies to mitigate them: (1) quality of care and quality of life for residents, (2) Medicare and Medicaid billing requirements, (3) the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), and (4) other risk areas such as related-party transactions and privacy breaches.
HHS Publishes Nursing Facility Industry-Specific Compliance Program Guidance (ICPG), Husch Blackwell, December 6, 2024
“Skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs and pervasive practices by private equity interests in health care have created an untenable situation for Massachusetts residents seeking care.
Senator Cindy F. Friedman (D-Arlington), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, Governor Healey Signs Laws Lowering Health Care Costs and Strengthening Oversight, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, January 9, 2025
“These new laws put patients and working families over corporate profits,” said “These measures take critical steps to limit out-of-pocket costs for residents and hold pharmacy benefit managers and private equity firms accountable.
Senator John J. Cronin (D-Fitchburg), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, Governor Healey Signs Laws Lowering Health Care Costs and Strengthening Oversight, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, January 9, 2025
As signed into law by Governor Maura Healy on January 8, An Act Enhancing the Market Review Process (H 5159) will have profound effects for private equity (PE) investors and real estate investment trusts (REITs) engaging with the Massachusetts health care market. Passage of the Act comes on the heels of prominent PE-backed hospital failures in Massachusetts.
What Private Equity Investors and Real Estate Investment Trusts Need to Know About the Newly Enacted Massachusetts Health Oversight Law, The National Law Review, January 9, 2025
“While we can never fully repay the debt that we owe to veterans for their service to our country, this bipartisan legislation is one way that we can provide more veterans and their families with the support that they have earned and deserve. I am glad that we came together on both sides of the aisle to pass into law this bill that will, in particular, help more veterans age with dignity.”
U. S. Senator Maggie Hassan, (NH-D), SIGNED INTO LAW: Senator Hassan and Colleagues’ Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Veterans’ Health Care and Benefits, Office of U. S. Senator Maggie Hassan, January 3, 2025
If a sale proceeds? Pine Crest won’t be the same. . . For now, it’s “full of neighbors and friends and people from our community, people who love us and know us.
“You don’t find that in some big city, and you don’t find that in a private, for-profit nursing home.”
Arlene Meyer, 86 year-old resident of Pine Crest, ‘We own it. It’s our place.’ Worsened care feared as counties privatize their nursing homes, *WPR and Wisconsin Watch, January 13, 2025
“It was really dramatic. We are optimistic that health plans who pay treatment fees for sober homes will see health care costs decline.”
Mary Takach, senior health policy adviser at Boston Health Care for the Homeless, A local sober housing program funded by health insurer helps people recover from addiction, *Boston Globe, January 11, 2025
January 7, 2025
Policymakers, healthcare professionals, and community leaders must work together to ensure that the pursuit of profits does not come at the expense of patient care and community health. As the debate continues, it’s clear that finding a balance between financial sustainability and quality healthcare delivery will be crucial for the future of the American healthcare system.
Nursing Home Fines Skyrocket After Private Equity Buyouts, Studies Find, Nurse.org , January 2, 2025
One of the most significant [demographic] trends, however, is the growth in the number of older adult households. With the oldest baby boomers turning 80 in 2026, the number of households headed by a person aged 80 or older will rise nearly 60 percent in the next ten years—an increase of nearly 6 million households. This will lead to an unprecedented number of older adult households, an extraordinary need for housing and services, and ever higher numbers of households lost each year from aging or mortality that will drive down net household growth.
New Projections Anticipate a Slowdown in Household Growth and Housing Demand, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, January 6, 2025
“This was not a short-term, unintentional failure to meet staffing requirements but an intentional and repeated misuse of public funds with the goal of maximizing corporate and personal profits,” the [New Jersey] Office of the State Comptroller wrote in its mid-December report.
Staffing challenges unlikely to ease at NJ nursing homes, NJ Spotlight News, January 6, 2025
“New Jersey’s direct care workforce is shrinking and cannot meet the needs of the growing elderly population. Many (long-term care) staff are feeling overwhelmed and undervalued, while engaged in physically and emotionally difficult work,” the long-term care task force wrote, warning this leaves a growing elder population under-protected. “Despite these minimum staffing standards, nursing home residents continually complain about understaffing, and the types of problems and conditions that are attendant to understaffing.”
Staffing challenges unlikely to ease at NJ nursing homes, NJ Spotlight News, January 6, 2025
“We believe that more public oversight of this largely for-profit, private equity-backed industry is necessary to ensure that Medicaid dollars are being properly invested in frontline care. This is key to solving the staffing question.
“Ensuring adequate staffing and safe care for nursing home residents cannot be optional – it is a core responsibility of the licensed operator.
“We should not take at face value the claim that nursing operators are unable to find enough staff, especially when their finances are shielded from public scrutiny and many owners are actively attempting to weaken the job standards that workers fought hard to achieve,”
Milly Silva, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, New Jersey, Staffing challenges unlikely to ease at NJ nursing homes, NJ Spotlight News, January 6, 2025
“I think we have more relief and improvement [in staffing levels] when we are unionized. We have to do better for our older people.”
Debbie White, president and CEO of HPAE New Jersey’s largest health care union, Staffing challenges unlikely to ease at NJ nursing homes, NJ Spotlight News, January 6, 2025
Alcohol is a leading preventable cause of cancer, and alcoholic beverages should carry a warning label as packs of cigarettes do. . . [A]lcohol directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general, Surgeon General Calls for Cancer Warnings on Alcohol, *New York Times, January 3, 2025
A person sick with norovirus can shed significant amounts of the virus, and it doesn’t take much to infect someone else. Because of this, the virus thrives in crowded, indoor spaces like cruise ships, nursing homes, schools and day care centers.
Norovirus Outbreaks Are Rising Nationwide, C.D.C. Says, *New York Times, January 2, 2025 (updated)
Medicare patients enrolled in an accountable care organization were most likely to be referred to a high-quality nursing home, much more so than patients in the Medicare Advantage program or even those covered by traditional Medicare. . .
“[Medicare Advantage programs] are trying to steer the enrollees to low-quality SNFs, probably because low-quality SNFs mean lower payments.
Huiying Wang, a post-doctoral research associate at Brown University’s Center for Gerontology and Healthcare, ACO beneficiaries most likely to land in high-quality nursing homes, McKnights Long-Term Care News, January 3, 2025
The 2021 [New York state] law — which requires nursing homes to spend a minimum of 70% of revenue on patient care and mandates that 40% of that portion be spent on staffing — led to an April 2023 suit that argued the rule is a regulatory overstep and unfairly singles out nursing homes in violation of the state and US constitutions.
Dozens of nursing homes fight state’s decision to strip them of capital funding, McKnights Long-Term Care News, January 2, 2025
Nearly 30 percent of pharmacies in the United States closed between 2010 and 2021, according to a new study in the journal Health Affairs. After initial years of growth, the number of closures outpaced that of openings from 2018 to 2021. . . CVS, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, opened 100 stores between 2022 and 2024; in that period, it closed 900. Walgreens announced in October that it would shutter 1,200 of its roughly 8,500 stores over three years. Independent pharmacies, the Health Affairs study noted, face more than twice the risk of closure compared with chain stores.
As Drugstores Close, Older People Are Left in ‘Pharmacy Deserts’,*New York Times, December 21, 2024
“This legislation is a testament to our collective commitment to treating substance use disorder with compassion and evidence. As an addiction medicine physician, I see firsthand the transformative impact that access to treatment, recovery supports, and overdose reversal medications can have on patients and their families.”
Sarah Wakeman, M.D., Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorders, Mass General Brigham, Governor Healey Signs Bill Making Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Support More Affordable and Accessible, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, December 24, 2024
“People must have access to the vital health care services they need. Hospital closures in recent years, however, have left patients worried about where they can access care and resulted in job losses for invaluable nurses and healthcare workers.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, Audit Reveals Financial Conditions Not Appropriately Monitored at Hospitals, Including Steward Facilities, Office of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, January 3, 2025
“We thought we had a clear path to reauthorization of the Older Americans Act and extension of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act. Now, it looks like Congress is back to square one. The aging services network is scrambling to ensure older adults — especially those with low incomes — are not left out of the final funding bill.”
Ramsey Alwin, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging in a LinkedIn post on Dec. 20, Older Americans Act reauthorization in limbo: What to know, Association of Healthcare Journalists, December 20, 2024 (updated)
Older Americans Act reauthorization is caught up in this “kick the can” strategy until a new deal is reached, but vital services will continue to operate at fiscal year 2024 levels.
Bob Blancato, executive director of the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs, Older Americans Act reauthorization in limbo: What to know, Association of Healthcare Journalists, December 20, 2024 (updated)
“As recipients get sicker, though, they may have more difficulty accessing services than people with traditional Medicare. That’s because the insurers actively manage the care, including requiring patients to get approval for certain services and limiting which hospitals and doctors patients can use.”
Anna Wilde Mathews, Christopher Weaver and Tom McGinty, WSJ analysis shows sickest seniors leaving Medicare Advantage, shifting costs to taxpayers(Association of Healthcare Journalists, December 20, 2024 (updated))
Skilled nursing facility spending accounted for the largest share of the difference in average Medicare spending per person between people who disenrolled from Medicare Advantage and those continuously in traditional Medicare (34%), followed by outpatient hospital spending (23%), and inpatient hospital spending (20%), with some variation by chronic conditions and other beneficiary characteristics.
Medicare Spending was 27% More for People who Disenrolled from Medicare Advantage than for Similar People in Traditional Medicare, KFF, December 6, 2024
“One of foremost health policy challenges facing the next Trump administration will be striking a balance between retaining the law’s elements that align with the President-elect’s agenda — to lower prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries — and addressing those features it opposes, such as Medicare drug price negotiation.”
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, For Medicare members, the Inflation Reduction Act cuts drug costs, spreads out payments, (Association of Healthcare Journalists, November 11, 2024
“I will elect telemedicine over an in-person visit whenever it’s available.”
Kent Manuel, who has cancer and uses a wheelchair due to paralysis following spinal surgery, Telemedicine for Seniors Gets a Last-Minute Reprieve, *New York Times, January 5, 2025
As of Dec. 16, 329 behavioral health patients, including 47 children, were boarding in Massachusetts emergency rooms, down from 522 adults and 60 children last year. Behavioral health boarders and behavioral health patients awaiting evaluation now occupy 12 percent of ER beds across the state, down from 16 percent a year ago.
Community behavioral health centers have helped ease the ER boarding crisis. Now some are struggling financially., *Boston Globe, January 4, 2025
For many nursing home residents, a trip to the hospital can be a jarring experience—one that leaves them confused and stressed. Yet avoidable transfers happen far too often, not only disrupting a resident’s routine but also costing the U.S. health care system $2.6 billion annually.
Researchers aim to reduce avoidable hospitalizations for nursing home residents with dementia, Medical Xpress, January 3, 2025
“Not all residents with dementia can tell the nursing home staff they don’t want to be transferred to the hospital, so our research highlights the importance of documenting advanced care planning for residents ahead of time. Having those conversations early and often—ideally when a resident might be in an earlier stage of disease progression and better able to communicate their desires and values—helps us honor them through the rest of their life.”
Kimberly Powell, an assistant professor in the Columbia, Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, Researchers aim to reduce avoidable hospitalizations for nursing home residents with dementia, Medical Xpress, January 3, 2025
A new study involving more than 80,000 US nursing homes has found a link between the use of staffing agency nurses and lower quality ratings in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Five-Star system.
The use of agency registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants decreased a facility’s chance of attaining higher star ratings by 4%, 5% and 4%, respectively, researchers discovered.
Agency nurses linked to lower CMS nursing home quality ratings, McKnights Long-Term Care News, January 6, 2025
“Agency nurses have less familiarity with residents’ specific needs and facility protocols, potentially impacting continuity and consistency in care. Their presence may also create issues for permanent nursing staff who may feel that they have to ‘guide’ the agency nursing staff.”
Rohit Pradhan, health services researcher at Texas State University, Agency nurses linked to lower CMS nursing home quality ratings, McKnights Long-Term Care News, January 6, 2025
“[Enhanced] payment [for private room occupancy for Medicaid recipients] was the result of collaboration of Ohio’s nursing home associations and the General Assembly, who all recognized the difference that private rooms make to dignity and quality of life. We have seen an increase in the number of beds that have been relinquished statewide, as providers have converted shared rooms to private, so this payment has already made an impact.”
LeadingAge Ohio president and CEO Susan Wallace, Ohio gets go-ahead for its private nursing home room Medicaid add-on, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, January 6, 2025
January 3, 2025
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love. My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
Chip Carter, Jimmy Carter, 39th president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, dies at 100, *Washington Post, December 29, 2024
“If I were an amputee, for instance, my prayer would not be to restore my leg but to help me make the best of my condition, and to be thankful for life and opportunities to be a blessing to others. At the moment, we are monitoring the status of my cancer, and my prayers about my own health are similar to this.”
President Jimmy Carter, from “Faith: A Journey for All”, Jimmy Carter, On Death, New York Times (free access), December 31, 2024
“Perhaps the most troubling aspect of our later years is the need to face the inevitability of our own impending physical death. For some people, this fact becomes a cause of great distress, sometimes with attendant resentment against God or even those around us.”
President Jimmy Carter, from “The Virtues of Aging”, Jimmy Carter, On Death, New York Times (free access), December 31, 2024
The newly passed legislation does what this board has called for — it brings pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers under the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission’s health care cost trends process. . . The next [needed] step will be monitoring these reforms and continuing to examine what additional changes are needed to control costs and limit business practices that don’t prioritize patients.
Last-minute health care bills make needed reforms, *Boston Globe, January 2, 2025
“Today’s ruling affirms the right of thousands of people with disabilities to choose how and where they live. . [P]eople with disabilities around the country are applauding the Court’s recognition of their civil rights.”
Kelly Bagby, an attorney with the AARP Foundation who represented the plaintiffs, Judge rules against D.C. in long-running suit from nursing home residents, *Washington Post, December 31, 2024
“These decisions impact hundreds of seniors and their caregivers, together with the health care workers at these facilities and their families. Hearings will be held to allow the public to weigh in on these decisions, but the trend is clear: the financial instability of nursing homes in Connecticut is getting worse. We need answers and long-term solutions. As policymakers, we can either watch these closures adversely affect senior’s lives and healthcare jobs, or we can work in bipartisan fashion at the State Capitol to bring stability and predictably to long term care. We must choose the latter course of action because seniors and labor deserve better.”
Connecticut Republican State Senators Kevin Kelly, Tony Hwang and Henri Martin, Athena Health Care to close two nursing homes in Bristol, WFSB.com, December 26, 2024
“Navigating the decision to place a loved one in a nursing home is an emotional and challenging process. This legislation ensures that families have clear, accurate, and accessible information to help them choose the best possible care for their loved ones. Transparency and accountability are essential in providing peace of mind during such critical decisions.”
New York State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, who sponsored the legislation, New law requires nursing homes to post ratings (WNYT.com, December 29, 2024 (updated))
Delinquency rates for nursing homes saw a continued rise for three consecutive quarters, reaching 2.7% in 2024. That’s up from 0.6% in late 2023, according to the report.
(Nursing Home Loan Delinquency Rates Rise in 2024, Hit 2.7%, Skilled Nursing News, December 26, 2024
“I was teed off about [the sale of county-owned Pine Crest Nursing Home] because of some of these SOBs. They said, ‘well, the cost factor.’ Now I think about what jerks were running this.”
86 year-old Arlene Meyer, a former Lincoln County Board supervisor who is now a resident of Pine Crest Nursing Home, ‘We own it. It’s our place.’ Worsened care feared as counties privatize their nursing homes (The Monroe Times, December 25, 2024)
“I was starting to get to the point where I did have some hope, and I was like, maybe I can see an actual end to this and it was just cut off prematurely. . . I believed I could get better. With just a little more time, I could discharge, and I could live life finally.”
Geneva Moore, whose behavioral health services were curtailed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage. (Pro Publica, December 31, 2024
“We know that private equity increases the mortality of Medicare residents by 10%. We know these things now. And it’s just really no… private equity should not be in health care. It should not be in nursing homes. . . These aren’t folks that are in it for the care. These aren’t folks that are looking at fines and violations and saying, oh, we can do better. They’re saying, you know, how can we get around them?”
Sam Brooks, the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, ‘Private equity should not be in healthcare’ – Nursing home fines rise after buyouts, KCRG.com, January 1, 2025