How to navigate long term care. This becomes the challenge when your parents, loved one or relations need to go to a nursing home then into Home care, Hospice care and Assisted Living.

As Obama Care pays health networks for population health … in other words the Federal Government gives them a budget based on their market area’s census and risk pools of elderly and disabled patients coming to them for critical care. They need to sign up continuum contracts with home care, skilled nursing, hospice and possible assisted living providers.

They will require that the continuum give them a price for different episodes of care. Therefore, each provider will need to price out a stroke patient complicated by diabetes, respiratory failure, heart failure for an estimated length of treatment including all services and drugs and equipment to refer the patient to the next provider.

Triggers for selecting the right provider:

• Which ones are known by reference to be the best?
• Which ones are known by reputation to be the worst?
• How are they paid … private funding, Medicare or Medicaid?
• Are the regulators doing the job … what is their five-star rating by the StateWhich ones are the best?

I have personally spent 37 years working with various nursing homes on their financial and operational problems. After being on the inside for at least 300 nursing homes I’ve found that there are many marginal providers and some blatant operators who are too big to care. But only a few excellent facilities.

Be aware that the government’s five-star system is not a true indicator of the quality … it’s more the above than their bureaucratic system.

1. Make sure they take Medicare and Medicaid funding.
2. Ask about thee add-ons and how you are kept informed on costs and care problems.
3. If the culture feels good when you walk in and it smells good give it a chance.
4. Which ones are the worst? The first indicator is odor. If it stinks forget it. If it looks unclean forget it. If it’s unfriendly forget it.
5. Contact jerry.l.rhoads@gmail.com for a detailed checklist or reply to this log and $20 I will send you the detailed checklist.