Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Home Disclosure Bill: Transparency Or Intrusion?

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The state’s nursing homes call it excessive and intrusive. The Malloy administration calls it a move towards transparency. At issue is a proposed bill that would require nursing homes to disclose the financial status of any “related party” businesses that contract with the homes – such as associated companies that own the facility properties, or spinoff businesses that provide rehabilitation or management services. The bill would require that the nursing homes report profits and losses for any side businesses that receive more than $10,000 a year from them. The Malloy administration – backed by the union representing nursing home workers, New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 – has pushed the bill through legislative committees, touting it as a way to increase transparency in an industry marked by bankruptcies, takeovers and several high-profile scandals in recent years.

Disparities

Home Care Challenge: Retaining Workers, Keeping Costs Low

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Debbie Hardy, a home health care aide, is the reason that Frank Geraldino, 48, a paraplegic, is able to live in his Seymour apartment – rather than in a nursing facility. Hardy, of Ansonia, is an independent worker providing in-home personal care services, such as bathing and feeding, for people with serious disability. Medicaid covers the bill, but the patients are technically the employers, hiring and scheduling their own in-home care. More than 6,000 personal care workers are listed on various registries as providing in-home care services.   The lists include home health aides, who are trained and licensed as certified nursing assistants, and personal care assistants, who are not licensed.