Posts in Nursing Homes

Medicare Cutbacks + Delaware's Aging Population: They Are Coming but We're Not Building It (Except Sometimes Below the Canal)

Last year colleague James Landon and I offered up a note of caution in the Urban Lawyer regarding Delaware's "perfect storm" of NIMBY-ism, suburban sprawl, inflexible zoning codes, and Medicare reimbursement rates resulting in zoning policy that excludes the elderly, very sick, and their families from residential communities, nursing care, and social support. We discussed the role of the Fair Housing Act and offered a curative prescription of six features zoning codes should have to ensure meeting Delaware's seniors' needs. We regret to report that while our zoning agenda is going nowhere in any Delaware county or municipality, Delaware’s potential Medicare cost increase due to its aging population will be 457 percent by 2030, according to the May 19, 2013 News Journal.  The state did initiate plans to staunch the spending increase: "a system was set up to move people from institutional care back to the community." More › Share

Delaware Now Requires Nursing Home Emergency Plans

Hurricane Irene blew more than wind and rain into Delaware in 2011.  Nursing homes and similar facilities now must have an “all hazards” plan as well as two staff members with FEMA training.  We wrote to suggest the “sheltering in place” part of each facility plan include a fully stocked bar, an amenity one of our attorneys enjoyed when stranded on Little Palm Island in a thatched hut during a category 2 hurricane, but that revision did not make it into the final rule. Compliance deadline: contemporaneous with annual renewal for licenses and license applications.  16 DE Admin. Code 3201.

All Delaware Regulations Issued March 2013

Author:  The Morris James Health Care Industry Team

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