‘Model’ Nursing Home For Paroled Inmates To Get Federal Funds

Inside the 60 West nursing home in Rocky Hill, two residents played solitaire to the sound of soul music. Others sat in wheelchairs beneath a simulation of rolling clouds, while one got a haircut in a barbershop decorated with Red Sox posters. From the outside, the 95-bed, single-story facility set back from the road looks like any other nursing home. But many of the elderly and ill residents are actually paroled prisoners, and the home is being watched nationally as a potential game-changer for states grappling for ways to care for their aging inmate populations. 60 West is the first facility in the country to win approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for federal nursing home funding—a designation that has national significance, experts say, because it’s a new option for cash-strapped states looking for ways to care for growing populations of older and sicker inmates.