By Communications Department - Archdiocese of Miami
MIAMI | In an April 18 letter to state Senator Anitere Flores, Archbishop Thomas Wenski expressed opposition to a proposed Nursing Home Prospective Payment System which is included in the Senate's 2018 budget.
Flores, a Miami-based legislator, chairs the Florida Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.
Archbishop Wenski noted that the archdiocese's Catholic Health Services cares for more than 3,500 patients in its four skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. He wrote that the proposed payment system "will potentially compromise our high quality nursing homes while providing a windfall to lower performing nursing homes."
The proposed payment system, he added, "continues to utilize cost-based methodologies without taking into consideration the needs of the nursing home residents."
He suggested that the legislature instead conduct a study that focuses on the needs of nursing home residents and develop a "resident-centered prospective payment system." Such a system would take into account the resident's medical condition, cognitive status and behavioral issues and allocate resources accordingly, "similar to a DGR system for hospitals."
Click on the image to read Archbishop Wenski's letter in its entirety.
