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Group to Examine Lax Nursing Home Regulations
The Associated Press
August 8, 2005
Louisiana is not enforcing federal regulations for nursing homes. Now a group has been set up to find out how to change that.
About 20 people both in and out of state government, will compare Louisiana's regulatory system to those of other states, said Health and Hospitals Secretary Fred Cerise.
"We want to look at our process and determine how you best improve quality of care and services," Cerise said. "And if that's through the sanction process, we want to make sure we have a better sanction process."
The latest statistics show Louisiana nursing homes are far less likely to be fined for violations than nursing homes in other Southern states, even though the state's homes often rank at or near the bottom on key national quality indicators.
Over the past four years, Louisiana's 309 nursing homes were issued a total of $1,168,719 in state and federal fines, according to state and federal records recently released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Times Picayune reported on Sunday. Altogether, federal regulators, who rely on state officials to recommend cases for sanctions, imposed $218,162 in fines on Louisiana operators.
By comparison, Mississippi's 204 nursing homes were hit with nearly $3 million in federal fines over the same period, and the 1,137 nursing homes in Texas were penalized $7.4 million, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Data on state fines in those states was unavailable.
Unlike the vast majority of states, where health departments leave the job of punishing problem homes up to the federal government, Louisiana regulators typically impose their own penalties for violations. Experts who have studied the state's track record have said Louisiana has one of the most lax enforcement systems in the country.
Since 1999, at least 33 nursing home deaths have been linked to poor care.
The average fine for nursing homes that caused or contributed to a resident's death was $1,970, well below the state's legal maximum of $10,000. Nine deaths drew no fines or sanctions even though inspectors said the homes contributed to the fatal outcomes through significant mistakes in caring for the residents.
A draft report issued in December by Gov. Kathleen Blanco's health reform panel recommended that sanctions against nursing homes be increased. But that recommendation was not included in a final report sent to Blanco in March, and it was not part of a package of health care legislation the administration backed during the legislative session.
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