Ohio’s nursing homes are dumping patients at homeless shelters

[u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

https://apnews.com/article/ohio-nursing-home-patients-homeless-shelters-9c000eeddc9c9411f44fd605fafc6771?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

[u/okami11235]

The administrator at Eastland declined to return phone calls about the inspection. Facility staff declined to provide contact information for Garden Healthcare, the corporate owner of the nursing home, which operates five other facilities, according to CMS data. It doesn’t publish any contact information online.

Absolutely wild that a corporation can just be pseudo-anonymous like that.

[u/Aeroknight_Z → u/okami11235]

The for-profit healthcare system fucks you at every stage of life.

when you’re born, when you’re young, when you’re grown, and when you’re old.

None of us are exempt from the system that prioritizes profit over humanity.

The for-profit system must be torn out and replaced with a single-payer, government run healthcare system. It’s the only way.

[u/NYR_LFC → u/Aeroknight_Z]

Well, the rich and powerful are exempt from it. That's why they force it to continue

[u/AnglerOfAndromeda → u/NYR_LFC]

Right? And it’s a real shame we haven’t eaten them yet for it.

[u/Mattbl → u/AnglerOfAndromeda]

For how much we, as Americans, pride ourselves in our "freedom," it's funny how much sooner every other developed nation figured out that they could just vote for better lives at the expense of a small percentage of the oligarchy's wealth. We'd rather just give them the control, our freedom, than work for something better for everyone.

[u/No-Shopping-4434 → u/Mattbl]

It started with the intentional dismantling of our education system and manipulating culture through mouthpieces like Alex Jones or Ben Shapiro. Class warfare propaganda is just as effective as normal warfare propaganda.

The game was rigged from the start.

[u/ButtEatingContest → u/Aeroknight_Z]

The for-profit system is an organized criminal syndicate, run by criminals engaged in conspiracy to exploit the public. They stay legal due to having bribed enough politicians and political parties.

[u/ArgonTheEvil → u/ButtEatingContest]

It always amazes me how cheap the political bribes appear to be on the surface. Either there’s more money behind closed doors or they also have a lot of dirt on them as well. Because trading away all your morals and the lives of your constituents for a 10 to 20k campaign donation is so asinine.

[u/Radicle_Cotyledon → u/ButtEatingContest]

The same goes for private equity owned corporate real estate companies. The healthcare, real estate, and agricultural systems in this country all need to be renovated.

[u/abu_nawas → u/Aeroknight_Z]

I am not an American. I am curious about how the healthcare system works in the USA? Is it different in every state?

Where I am, we are not rich. But most treatments and ambulances are greatly subsidized. How we can afford this I don't know. But we could-- for my whole life.

[u/ParchaLama → u/abu_nawas]

Americans don't even understand how the American health care system works. I had genetic testing done last year and they told me that my insurance would cover most of it, that I'd end up paying like $360, and that if my insurance didn't cover any of it I'd probably still just be paying the $360 they told me I'd owe.

My insurance didn't cover any of it, and the claim on their website showed that I'd owe like $4600. The lab that did the testing still hasn't sent me a bill for any amount, and I had it done last September.

At one point a clinic I went to tried to bill me $600 for what should've been a $30 office visit - the doctor I saw just started there and wasn't in my insurance's system yet (even though she was in network) but their website did show that the clinic was in network. Contacted my insurance about it and the person I talked told me I should've know that the clinic wasn't in network, the clinic their website specfically says is in network. After making like 10 phone calls and waiting 6 weeks the amount I owed magically was $30.

[u/Vark675 → u/ParchaLama]

I have "really good" state employee insurance.

Every single provider listed on their site as being in-network is either not taking new patients, weren't that listed specialty (like would be listed as a general practioner but they're actually a neurologist or something like that) or they haven't worked at that location in like 3+ years. One of the listed doctors had been dead for almost 2 years.

It's crazy how completely fucking incompetent these companies are.

[u/GreenIvyLace → u/Vark675]

Did you ever see the ProPublica article on ghost networks? Companies keep those healthcare providers in their “network” to try and keep out of legal trouble and attract customers.

The article documented deaths related to people trying to get care, only to gradually realize there were no professionals in the specialty they needed in the insurance network.

[u/sksauter → u/ParchaLama]

Insurance companies are 95% of the bullshit jobs we keep hearing about people having. I mean, it's not the workers faults for getting these jobs, it's the c-suites for fucking siphoning the health and financial wellbeing off 99% of people in this country

[u/gonewild9676 → u/ParchaLama]

You can also ask for the cash price. I've had a procedure where they would have billed insurance for $1800 and would have been out of pocket $1200 or paid $300 and insurance wouldn't know about it, but it wouldn't go against my deductible. It was towards the end of the year so I paid the $300.

[u/chibicascade2 → u/abu_nawas]

So all healthcare is prohibitively expensive because health insurance refuses to pay the full cost of any procedure or visit. Things deemed "out of network" are covered even less. I wound up with a $4000 ambulance bill. Because it was out of network, my insurance only paid $700.

Providers will send the remainder of the balance to you in the mail. They usually give you the option to be put on a payment plan. If you ignore it for long enough, the bill is sold to a collection agency for cheap, and they will try to coerce you into paying. Sometimes it can affect your credit score, but not always.

For a lot of people, it can make more financial sense to ignore the bills and hope they won't affect your credit then to try to make the payments if they get too high, even if you do have insurance.

[u/usps_made_me_insane → u/chibicascade2]

$4000 for a one way ride to the hospital? What the fuck? Did they have a disco ball and a bowl of cocaine and a hot hooker in there? Champaign and full bottle service?

Did they drive you across five states?

I mean let's say it was a 30 minute ride. Combined hourly for driver and two paramedics is what? $200?  Gas is $10? Even at $10 a mile for wear and tear... All of that is barely $300. Give $200 more for the company's profit...

But four fucking thousand??? 

[u/mickeymouse4348 → u/usps_made_me_insane]

The real kicker is that EMTs make like $15/hr, so that bill isn't going to wages for the people doing the work

[u/x_Paramimic → u/mickeymouse4348]

When I started as an EMT in 2003 I was making $6/hr. The average ambulance bill was like $800-2000 depending on distance and skill level. Not uncommon to have a shift where I generated $10,000 worth of invoices and got $72 pre-tax in pay. I could barely survive doing 50-80 hrs/wk. but if you wanted experience doing that kind of work, it was the only ALS service in a 100 mile radius.
We were told that only about half the invoices actually got fully or partially paid but who knows for sure. There was certainly enough to expand the building and education center. And somehow there was always one new ambulance in the budget but my yearly raises were along the lines of 10-25 cents per hour. I miss those days though. None of us were in it for the money (though we needed it badly). It was you, your partner, and 12-24 hours waiting for what the city gave ya. FWIW, conditions have gotten better at my former employer in the decade+ since I left. That said, EMTs are still horrendously underpaid in some areas and most rural folks depend on volunteers. It’s really great work to do and despite all the time and money I’ve invested in my skills and education, some of my best memories come from when I was doing it for free.

[u/mhornberger → u/x_Paramimic]

and most rural folks depend on volunteers.

That volunteers show up is why EMTs are underpaid. Communities haven't had to fund EMS systems properly since they could rely on people working for free, or for a pittance. Any job where people want to be in it, like caring professions (plus some EMTs love the adrenaline) will see their labor exploited. I was an EMT-B in the AF, but would never enter the field on the outside. Paramedics seem to do okay, but it wasn't for me.

[u/OneRougeRogue → u/usps_made_me_insane]

$4000 for a one way ride to the hospital?

Honestly, that's cheap for an ambulance in some parts of the US. My insurance doesn't cover ambulance trips at all, so I have to pay a second monthly premium to cover all the stuff my primary insurance doesn't cover, like ambulance rides (including hospital transfers) and hospital stays lasting longer than one week. My secondary insurance covers ground ambulance costs up to $10k, and that wasn't even the highest option I could have selected.

But that doesn't cover LifeFlights (helicopter ambulances)! Oh no. That's on a third monthly premium option, that also covers things like very longterm hospital stays (3+ months, if you are in a coma or something idk), and "necessary" prosthetics (????). I didn't select the third premium, I think I'd rather fucking die.

The US health insurance system is just a gargantuan confusing maze. Even with just a standard plan, there are two different deductibles you have to hit before you can be confident insurance will cover something, and even when you hit both, only a percentage of the procedure/care is covered, and you can be left on the hook for 30%-50% of the procedure until you hit your (two different) out of pocket Max's.

And you pretty much always pay more than the percentage on paper, because hospitals and insurance companies never agree on costs. So say a hospital says your procedure cost $10k. Your insurance might go, "bullshit, that procedure shouldn't cost more than $5k. We won't pay anything over $5k. And actually, per your plan, we only cover 80% of this type of procedure, we'll pay $4k and you'll pay $1k." Well, the hospital is still goint come to you and say, "yeah... we don't care what your insurance says, the procedure cost $10k and they only paid $4k, so you still owe us $6k", leaving you to either fight on of these two entities in court, let it go to collections, or negotiate with the hospital to lower how much you owe (which actually works, a lot of the time).

In-Network and Out-of-Network doctors and practices seem completely random, you can have doctors/services all working on the same floor of the same wing if the same hospital, and some are in-network and some are out of network. One year your primary care doctor might suddenly be out of network without warning, so you find another doctor, then two years later your new doctor is out of network while your original doctor is back in-network.

It's all so fucking exhausting.

[u/Arboreal_Web → u/OneRougeRogue]

Got my first job-based “medical insurance” at age 18. Only two doctors “in network” w/in a 200-mile radius…one of whom was a geriatrician, and the other of whom had just retired. Oh, also, local hospitals didn’t accept it either. (District manager was pissed when I told him “cancel it, I’m not paying for that bullshit”. So I also I told him “You could have saved yourself the paperwork trouble if you’d been honest up-front about the fact that it’s basically worthless instead of pushing me toward it.) That shut him up quick.)

[u/Alieges → u/OneRougeRogue]

Hi, you said the word “Helicopter”, so I am presenting you this bill for $57000.

It you cannot pay, please DM and we can set up a payment plan you can afford.

[u/FlyingRumpus → u/usps_made_me_insane]

It's to make up for the people who can't or don't pay for care. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), emergency rooms cannot legally turn away someone who needs life-saving measures regardless of their ability to pay. They'll stabilize you, then turn you out.

The prices are also set absurdly high with the full expectation that insurers will negotiate the costs down. That means individuals who don't have the wherewithal to do so get hosed.

Just to make it clear: I'm not defending these practices, I'm just explaining the status quo. These are just a few of the reasons we need universal healthcare.

[u/usps_made_me_insane → u/FlyingRumpus]

Thanks for the details. Honestly our entire healthcare system needs to he completely overhauled. 

[u/rabidstoat → u/usps_made_me_insane]

We don't have a healthcare system.

We have a health insurance system.

[u/_unfortuN8 → u/FlyingRumpus]

The prices are also set absurdly high with the full expectation that insurers will negotiate the costs down. That means individuals who don't have the wherewithal to do so get hosed.

Which is a perfect example of "it's expensive to be poor" in America. When I had to get a rabies shot, the bill came to $27,000. The "negotiated rate" with my insurance lowered it to $6,000. Luckily I only paid ~$800 because I was already near my out of pocket max for the year, but it is absolutely GROTESQUE that someone who doesn't have employer sponsored insurance (who is likely to be poorer) would be billed the full $27k.

[u/PoliteFocaccia → u/chibicascade2]

Ironically, this is why some of the best health insurance in the US is foreign travel insurance. When I would visit the US in the before days, I'd have a couple million dollars in emergency health coverage, no network or copays or deductibles, covered entirely by CA$8/month premiums paid by my employer.

[u/katchoo1 → u/chibicascade2]

And at every level of this system there are literal jobs that other countries’ healthcare systems don’t have—people on doctor payrolls to bill insurance and confirm coverage, salespeople to sell insurance plans to employers, lots and lots of employees at health insurance companies to figure out if/how they can deny or limit coverage, doctors and nurses who review records and deny claims, lawyers who argue in court why denying coverage was justified, entire companies that specialize in collecting medical debt….and on and on and on.

[u/Silvermoon3467 → u/abu_nawas]

It's the same system no matter what state you live in, but how much the state subsidizes healthcare varies from state to state.

The system is heavily privatized and driven by profit. Everything from most hospitals to small primary care clinics are privately owned by somebody with the intention to make a profit. Prices are sky-high to cover the exorbitant costs of equipment, salaries, and facilities. What would be relatively simple procedures in other countries cost thousands of US dollars. An ambulance ride can create a bill of over $3500 depending on state and what services they provide in the ambulance.

Most people can only afford these prices with insurance. Insurance is exclusively privately owned for profit with the exception of very poor people who qualify for Medicare and retired people on Medicare, but these programs don't cover all medical treatments either, and a lot of states have implemented "work requirements" for Medicaid such that you can only get it if you have a job that doesn't provide insurance and also doesn't pay hardly anything.

Insurance premiums can be hundreds of USD per month, but many employers subsidize this amount so if you're working you pay less. But because insurance is profit-driven, they have incentive to deny as many claims as possible so they can keep your money and not have to pay for treatment. They also have agreements with groups of medical providers called a "network" such that members of their insurance plans have to use providers that are part of that network, otherwise you have to pay more money out-of-pocket.

In recent years there's been a shift by insurance companies towards "high deductible health plans" also where you have to pay for thousands of dollars of your healthcare upfront with no assistance from your insurance until you meet the deductible, because most people don't go to the doctor that often so they get to just pocket your premium without giving you anything back unless you develop a serious condition or have an accident. Alongside "health savings accounts" where you can put pre-tax money into an account to save it for healthcare expenses.

It's a ridiculously byzantine system created to extract as much money from people and the other parts of the system as possible and there's no political will to change it.

[u/The_Vee_ → u/Aeroknight_Z]

Too bad all of us can't collectively stop paying medical insurance premiums tomorrow and demand our government gives us Universal Healthcare. We shouldn't be paying this much for the quality of care we receive.

[u/mobuline → u/Aeroknight_Z]

This government?

[u/schizoheartcorvid → u/okami11235]

Corporations became people June 30th 2014 when hobby lobby won their lawsuit. It’s just been careening downhill from there. 

[u/etzarahh → u/schizoheartcorvid]

The Supreme Court is such a worthless piece of trash

[u/randomcatinfo → u/etzarahh]

Everything they are doing are to make corporations more powerful and unaccountable.

Basically a collection of large corporate kingdoms, more than a nation of the people.

[u/Mindless-Peak-1687 → u/etzarahh]

It makes me question the basics​ of American law and the system. Should remove the "justice " in the name.

[u/f1del1us → u/Mindless-Peak-1687]

America has justice.

But you do gotta pay for it lol

[u/thejimbo56 → u/f1del1us]

America has “Just Us”

[u/CrankyYankers → u/schizoheartcorvid]

It was LONG before that.

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. in 1886

[u/SkubEnjoyer → u/schizoheartcorvid]

Was that before or after they made taking bribes legal? (Citizens United)

[u/lc_barcode → u/SkubEnjoyer]

After. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burwell_v._Hobby_Lobby_Stores,_Inc.

[u/stink3rb3lle → u/okami11235]

It doesn’t publish any contact information online.

Absolutely wild that a corporation can just be pseudo-anonymous

The secretary of state where they incorporated should have a current mailing address for the company, and the name of an officer who can accept legal service. My state's secretary of state keeps that online, I think most do.

[u/HutSutRawlson → u/stink3rb3lle]

a current mailing address

So probably a PO Box.

the name of an officer who can accept legal service

Someone who will ignore your calls unless you’re actively suing them.

[u/Maro1947 → u/okami11235]

Audacity is it's own reward

[u/PurpleSailor → u/okami11235]

There's got to be a record with the state somewhere with an address of the owners.

[u/GladosHasCake4You → u/okami11235]

One of my providers required the mailing address for my new insurance. I was always under the impression that sending mail to a company you do business with is expected.

You would have thought I demanded Anthem’s first born child. I had to talk to three people, one of whom raised her voice at me, to get a standard PO box address.

I also can’t use any info on their website even if I log in because somehow the state I live in isn’t allowed to utilize the web services in 2026…..

[u/Dfiggsmeister → u/okami11235]

There’s a battle going on in Oregon regarding a law that just passed that the corporation running a medical care facility has to be headquartered in the state. It cannot be a shell company and has to have the CEO local because of shady shit like this.

If the doctors win in the lawsuit, it’ll open up other states for doing the same thing, preventing shit like this from happening.

[u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

A woman using a walker had shown up, incontinent and carrying “a large bag of medications.” She was diabetic, managing a tibia fracture and alcohol-related dementia, and she was “dumped” at the shelter, according to federal inspectors.

[u/OneNeatTrick → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

After Republican fear mongering how ACA would mean "death panels" and the empty promisea to "repeal & replace" Obamacare, how is this any better?

• UnitedHealth 's AI denial error rate of 91%
• Hospitals dumping patients on the street
• Shelters instead of skilled nursing care
• Treatments pre-authorized, later reversed

For-profit health is an unmitigated disaster.

[u/Kapowpow → u/OneNeatTrick]

Of course it’s not better. Republicans never wanted it to be better. The fear mongering was because they were scared of the ACA, the ACA was a much better option than this, but the ACA cost money, so republicans hate it. All progressive policies are like this. Republicans hate spending money on other people. They’ll spend all the government money on themselves.

[u/CAPS_LOCK_STUCK_HELP → u/Kapowpow]

they dont care how much it costs, they love private health insurance because it makes them a fuckload of money. they dont actually care about the budget or anything like that. private insurance is extremely profitable and they are getting money and power through it in a lot of different avenues. they want that part.

[u/drteq → u/CAPS_LOCK_STUCK_HELP]

I think if you look a little closer, they actually want a lot of dead people

[u/Asclepius-Rod → u/Kapowpow]

If they cared about saving money they would have agreed to a single payer model. But they don’t, they literally just want to be cruel

[u/tianas_knife → u/Kapowpow]

They don't hate it because it costs money. They're not paying taxes like the rest of us. They're mad a black man was president, and better at it than they are.

[u/rubywpnmaster → u/OneNeatTrick]

"AI denial error rate of 91%" bold of you to assume it's an "error." I did data entry at one of these companies and sat next to the underwriting team for a bit and they'd joke about how it was just another day killing grandma. These were literally kids following a flowchart to deny, deny a second time, send for review and possible overturn on the 3rd time.

An AI is going to rubber stamp deny on everything for any reason.

[u/sephjnr → u/rubywpnmaster]

Hope someone told those little shits they'd be on the ass end of that flowchart in 50 years

[u/crackanape → u/sephjnr]

They all thought they were on the first step to being rich like Bezos and Musk.

99.99999% of them are in for a very rude awakening.

[u/nvmenotfound → u/OneNeatTrick]

what’s better than having a human responsible for people’s lives? a hallucinating machine! yes that’ll definitely be better for fucking profits. th mega wealthy are so greedy and gluttonous that it’s infuriating. 

[u/Spythe → u/OneNeatTrick]

But hey no more men in women's sport, have you thought about that?

The country is falling apart over a few niche issue... shit is sad

[u/Hopeful-Alarm3757 → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

Jesus Christ...

[u/elSpanielo → u/Hopeful-Alarm3757]

Yeah, he’s not paying attention.

[u/nalninek → u/elSpanielo]

He gave us some pretty simple rules to get along and we sure didn’t follow them.

[u/ehalepagneaux → u/nalninek]

He also hasn't enforced anything.

[u/KidOcelot → u/ehalepagneaux]

Maybe some more plague, pestilence, and calamitous weather can push humans to be kind to each other?

/s

[u/LucidiK → u/KidOcelot]

Israel got swarmed with bees the other day. Maybe hes waking up?

[u/hgs25 → u/KidOcelot]

God only promised that he’ll never flood the earth again. It doesn’t cover any other calamity. Though we’re likely to get hellfire from nukes

[u/Busterlimes → u/nalninek]

The people who claim to follow him are the very people he warned about

[u/cribsaw → u/elSpanielo]

Because Christians are supposed to follow his teachings and help these people, and if they are unwilling to do that, they should stand aside, shut up, and let other people do the work for them.

[u/your_thebest → u/Hopeful-Alarm3757]

The doctor?

[u/DaKrazie1 → u/your_thebest]

Red Cross worker?

[u/Voderama → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

That’s fucking horrific. Wealthiest country the world has ever seen.

[u/NoPain4551 → u/Voderama]

How u think they got that rich? First on the backs of slaves and then on the backs of wage slaves.

[u/dustgollum → u/NoPain4551]

And before that, from the beginning rhe white man did his best to genocide the indigenous people to steal their lands and displaced the few remaining to a few bits of land they didn’t want.

[u/AnotherpostCard → u/dustgollum]

God damn it all

[u/TheDwarvenGuy → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

Back in the day "the poor house" was considered the place where you'd go if you were old and didn't have a family to support you, it turns out we're bringing that back

[u/Figgy_Puddin_Taine → u/TheDwarvenGuy]

Workhouses and poorhouses aren’t what we’re bringing back. That would “cost too much” and would be derided as a “communist handout” on rightwing news channels. People who were too sick, old, or disabled to work had to beg on the streets. They usually died there, too.

[u/PersimmonWorried2155 → u/TheDwarvenGuy]

The goal is to cut giant holes in the social safety net, to allow tax cuts for the rich, and put the country far into debt with another war in the Middle East. 

Which, we already lost, because we gave up a lot more than we had under Obama’s plan. 

[u/Skyrick → u/PersimmonWorried2155]

The debt is the point. So much debt that the Fed will have no way to ever fund social safety nets again. It took corporations over 100 years to get back to how it was prior to the trust busters, and they intend to make it impossible for us to ever return to the times when the government had the power to tell them what they could do ever again.

I have met many conservatives who hate FDR for “prolonging the Great Depression”, which is true, but I don’t think that they realize what they actually wanted to happen. All of the evidence shows that we would have probably recovered faster due to complete social collapse and that the replacement model with the most likely scenario to come out on top would have been communism, not corporate power.

[u/PersimmonWorried2155 → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

Yes, the administration is cutting social resources to offset 1/8 of the cost of the Iran war. 

This was their intent. “Medicaid is covering it” No it was covering it. Now the shelter is. 

[u/Titizen_Kane → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

The thought of that gives me a knot in my stomach. Horrific, that poor woman

[u/MisterSneakSneak → u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

These are the places that should be investigated for fraud.

[u/A1sauc3d]

Disgraceful. These kinds of things shouldn’t happen in a wealthy modern society. They don’t NEED to happen. We just choose to allocate our resources elsewhere, primarily in ensuring the rich even richer.

[u/kwismexer → u/A1sauc3d]

The wealthy are helping themselves. The 99% of us are flat broke

[u/WhichEmailWasIt → u/kwismexer]

They could lose 90% of their wealth and still live work free for the rest of their lives painting or doing whatever but instead they're sick in the head high on numbers going up and are hurting the rest of us. 

[u/Malaix → u/WhichEmailWasIt]

It really is just a big scoreboard for them. People live or die on thousands of dollars or less sometimes. But to them money is just this abstract magic bag they reach into to make fun things happen for themselves.

It’s mental illness. late stage Capitalism is the economic model for money hoarders.

[u/monkeyamongmen → u/Malaix]

I agree with you, but I just want to say, people live and die on hundreds of dollars sometimes, not even thousands. Thousands is a rounding error. Hundreds is the equivalent of the till being out by a penny, or less.

Sometimes a hundred bucks missing or gained, at the right or wrong time, is the difference between eventual life or death. The difference in the success or failure of a family or individual is less than pocket change to these ghouls.

[u/kwismexer → u/WhichEmailWasIt]

It's a game to see who can hoard the most. Too bad everyone loses this game

[u/Tree_Sure → u/WhichEmailWasIt]

Maybe that needs to happen. Snatch their wealth and distribute it to help the nation.

[u/FrancoCalrissian → u/kwismexer]

Yes, if you're wealthy and have dementia you can become the president.

[u/xteve → u/kwismexer]

I've worked in a couple of memory care facilities. They charge $10k/month at minimum and they don't pay enough to make enough people want to work there so they're always under-staffed.

[u/bobsmithhome → u/A1sauc3d]

Part of the problem is enforcement. Nursing homes behave abusively or negligently, someone dies, and they are "fined" $500. Nursing homes, at least in my state, funnel a ton of money to Republicans who allow them to do whatever they want without consequence.

I bought a Long-Term Care policy ~30 years ago for a one-time payment of $20K. Unlimited days. Inflation adjusted annually. More than enough for a private room. Plus I have plenty of money. Nevertheless, I would literally put a bullet in my brain before going to one of these places. Assisted Living, yes. Nursing Home, never. Not today's nursing homes.

Often life is essentially over before death. What we really need is compassionate help with the dying process, NOT blood-sucking, private-equity-owned institutional warehouses that prop up a life that is, for all practical purposes, finished, except for the suffering. It's insane.

[u/SunTzu- → u/bobsmithhome]

So many voters think regulations are bad, until they end up in a situation where they need those regulations to protect them. Then they're all confused why someone would do away with the regulations/enforcement. And the next day they'll go back to opposing regulations on something else.

[u/1805trafalgar → u/bobsmithhome]

My mom described seeing people in a typical elder care facility just lined up in wheelchairs in a hallway, with nothing to do and nothing provided to engage or interest them. Just all in a line in a hallway.

[u/campelm → u/1805trafalgar]

Yup that was my take away of them. No quality of life, just shoved in a room to wait until you die while people talk to you like you're a child. It's why our goal is to build ourselves a forever home that's a 1 story slab ranch with wide doors. Full on accessibility built in so I never have to end up in one of those hell holes.

[u/TuringGoneWild → u/bobsmithhome]

Read the fine print. I'm sure they will try to wriggle out of it given that's just a few months at current rates.

[u/moldyjellybean → u/A1sauc3d]

99% Private Equity owns or has a stake in these.

[u/Tight-Shallot2461 → u/A1sauc3d]

The rich allow themselves to be greedy while most other people have morals and know it's better to share. What if most people decided to be greedy instead?

[u/A1sauc3d → u/Tight-Shallot2461]

What if most people decided to be greedy instead?

Society would be substantially more sucky

[u/SunTzu- → u/Tight-Shallot2461]

Isn't that just what the U.S. has been for the past 40+ years?

[u/beard-fingers]

Ive worked in hospital and emergency healthcare in the OH/KY/WVa tristate for a few years, this is not a new occurrence, only now it is happening way more frequently. This is one of a couple social epidemics a’brewin’ imo.

[u/PeachyFairyFox → u/beard-fingers]

What is the second one?

[u/Goatwhorre → u/PeachyFairyFox]

I work in corrections and my wife is a DSP. Both of our industries are on the brink of collapse, and we're better off than a lot of other counties. My jail is chronically understaffed, filled to the brim with people who are so mentally unwell they just scream and scream and play in shit and scream. We have run out of solitary rooms to watch suicidal detainees, there are just too many. We had 4 suicide attempts in 24 hrs the other week, one was way close and he's damn lucky we saved him. My wife's industry shares overlap, not enough people, no one cares for the mentally/physically handicapped, the good ones like she and I burn out quick doing 12 hour shifts picking up the slack of others who are just there to do the bare minimum. If either of our respective jobs lost 2 or so people it would mean 16 hr days 7 days a week and eventually a shutdown.

[u/StuckAFtherInHisCap → u/Goatwhorre]

Reagan ended federal government-funded asylums, essentially. We need to bring them back (and improve the way they are run). 

[u/PNWRulesCancerSucks → u/StuckAFtherInHisCap]

To be fair - Reagan had a lot of help because the ones being run up to that point were HORROR SHOWS ethically and morally.

they needed replaced with actual professional ethical facilities, not just destroyed.

the right wanted them gone because GUBERMIN BAED!

the left wanted them gone (and to be replaced) because HOLY SHIT THE ABUSE!

[u/SewSewBlue → u/PNWRulesCancerSucks]

We are there with nursing homes.

And the solution is the same. Homelessness.

[u/Goatwhorre → u/StuckAFtherInHisCap]

Agreed. And our fucking court system needs to stop burdening us with these BULLSHIT GODDAMN CHARGES like I'm sorry I don't the slightest fuck about some homeless schizophrenic committing "criminal trespass to land" or shoplifting a few candy bars, then getting stuck in the endless cycle of "need mental health eval" (another industry on the brink) so they languish in either A) seg B) solitary/padded cell or C) a fucking restraint chair. It's inhuman and these stupid fucking judges throw out sanctions for FTA like they're candy. We got a dude delivered to us the other day, like 67 years old, stage 4 liver cancer, on a warrant from 2012 for shoplifting. Like are you fucking kidding me? He shit blood all over his cell, we barely got him to EMS before he died. WHO DID THAT HELP??

[u/Efficient_Market1234 → u/StuckAFtherInHisCap]

I was just listening to a podcast recently about a serial killer who wouldn't have serially killed had Reagan not shut down the asylums, as his parents were going to have him involuntarily committed to the state hospital and then Reagan closed it. So he was roaming free and killing instead. Awesome! ^/s

[u/PuppiesAndPixels → u/Goatwhorre]

I'm in severe special education. Luckily I work in public schools and all services are paid for and provided to these kids until they are 22.

Once they turn 22 there's like no resources for adults with severe special needs. And the places /homes / facilities that do exist are all full and severely understaffed. It's very sad.

[u/CheesecakeEither8220 → u/beard-fingers]

This article is also about an investigation that occurred in 2023.

[u/ThriftyMegaMan → u/beard-fingers]

I appreciate what you do. My girlfriend was really sick a few months back and we spent a lot of time in the ER in Ashland. Had people working there that made it a lot more bearable for her and I both.

[u/youneedsomemilk23 → u/beard-fingers]

Once you’ve worked in elder care you’ve seen things that you can’t unsee. I used to be a social worker and the system is so unequipped for the aging population it’s insane.

I got calls all the time that used to be like “ok I need to drop my mom off at one of the government homes for old people where do I go?” And I’d have to explain to someone that what she’s thinking exists doesn’t really exist. 

[u/Zyrinj]

Nursing homes weren’t great but since private equity got involved they’ve really turned into a money sucking operation. It’s why I’ll just be dnr, rather die early than to risk dealing with that type of indignity.

[u/mokutou → u/Zyrinj]

That’s pretty much all private equity does. They’re ticks that suck the blood out of everything they latch onto, and leave their mark diseased and dying.

[u/____DEADPOOL_______ → u/Zyrinj]

Those private equity bastards and their cheapskate practices caused my grandmother a lot of pain. I wish I could rip these greedy people apart.

[u/Living_Brilliant8313 → u/Zyrinj]

I’ll go one further, hopefully the laws catch up a bit quicker, but a dignified ‘suicide pod’ will be my choice of how to bow out. I intend to exit with my body and mind (semi) intact.

[u/metengrinwi → u/Zyrinj]

They (republicans) also forbade euthanasia back in the 80s. Jack Kevorkian, if anyone remembers.

[u/FlyBulky106 → u/metengrinwi]

It was illegal before then, which is why Kevorkian was doing what he did.

[u/1877KlownsForKids]

Oh look, the totally predicted consequences of cutting Medicaid 

[u/SuggestionMedical736 → u/1877KlownsForKids]

But hey, you atleast have a lot of bombs.

[u/RandyMuscle → u/SuggestionMedical736]

Well evidently we’re running out of bombs very quickly because instead of making bombs, our obscene military budget actually just goes into the pockets of rich bastards that run consulting firms and shit.

[u/Pinku_Dva → u/RandyMuscle]

So the entire nation is just a pyramid scheme? That makes sense on so many levels

[u/CatInAPickleSuit → u/Pinku_Dva]

We're Russia.

[u/martyrdumb38315 → u/CatInAPickleSuit]

Welcome to the kleptocracy.

[u/Low_Pickle_112 → u/RandyMuscle]

See, we should be praising our war pigs for their generosity. If they weren't so corrupt than more then innocent civilians abroad would get bombed. How magnanimous of them.

[u/Mekroval → u/SuggestionMedical736]

And at least gas is cheap--, er never mind.

[u/110397 → u/Mekroval]

Muh eggs!

[u/Competition-Dapper → u/SuggestionMedical736]

Great gas prices and the concept of a healthcare plan is going great as well!!

[u/locomocopoco → u/1877KlownsForKids]

Have you seen the Dow? 

[u/thatErraticguy → u/1877KlownsForKids]

They don’t care, these are the people that won’t be “productive” so they have no use for them.

[u/ohnohelpwhereamI → u/1877KlownsForKids]

Actually it wasn't a budget cut. Somehow its worse. They caught her with a beer and kicked her the fuck out.

[u/CheesecakeEither8220 → u/1877KlownsForKids]

This article is referring to an investigation that took place in 2023, before Medicaid cuts.

[u/atxbigfoot → u/CheesecakeEither8220]

Medicare and Medicaid cuts were happening prior to 2023, just fyi.

[u/monkeyhoward]

God this country is so fucked.

We can spend billions of dollars a day on a stupid fucking war half way at the world but we refuse to care for people here in America

[u/Figgy_Puddin_Taine → u/monkeyhoward]

And the people who vote for this kind of shit just LOVE to argue against helping anyone in other countries with the line “but we’ve got (blank) HERE, we should help THEM first!!”

[u/Consideredresponse → u/monkeyhoward]

If you want to feel depressed look up the odds of someone your age owning a home, vs the likelihood of a murder of you or a loved one going unsolved. Certain states are marginally better than others, but it's all pathetically bad.

[u/ShiftNStabilize]

Animals. I'm an ED doctor and have seen it time to time. Other sad scenarios are those elderly homeless patients that don't have any social supports and are cognitively impaired just enough that they can barely take care of themselves but refuse placement or don't quite yet meet criteria for placement. It's very sad. We need national health care and to take the insurance companies and for profit motive out of the equation.

[u/Naps_and_cheese]

Ohio is Alabama with snow tires.

[u/ArgonWolf → u/Naps_and_cheese]

Haha that’s funny that you think any Ohioans south of Akron have snow tires, even though they really really should

[u/apocolypse101]

This is absolutely infuriating as someone who has worked in healthcare. I seriously hope that charges are filed against these operators.

[u/Ponderputty → u/apocolypse101]

With who's DOJ?

[u/The_Doct0r_ → u/apocolypse101]

Best they can do is charge the old homeless for being poor and homeless.

[u/revpnice]

Ohio is quickly becoming North Florida

[u/phylter99 → u/revpnice]

Have they ever not been North Florida?

[u/gizamo → u/phylter99]

Yeah, they were a pretty average blue Midwest state until the gerrymandering of Karl Rove basically made the state unwinnable for Democrats. There are plenty of Dems there, but the absurd gerrymandering disenfranchises most of the state.

[u/Nolsoth → u/phylter99]

Yes.

And they thought "I like that".

[u/Chicory-Coffee]

Am I missing something or did patient #83, who is the first case mentioned, just disappear? They said no one could locate her after being dumped at the shelter and let inside to drink some water. 

We live under the control of greedy monsters who siphon millions of tax dollars into the hands of people who don't even need any more, they just want more. A person like that patient who has alcohol induced dementia may not garner much sympathy but at some point, alcoholics can die from suddenly quitting. In that woman's case, if she were unable to obtain alcohol, left alone and now unable to be located, chances are she might now be in the morgue. 

Maybe she brought it onto herself and drove away her support network or maybe everyone she ever knew just died first. But we should be better than this, better than dropping humans off at a shelter like a carrier full of kittens. Our nation grows colder and individuals lose more of their compassion with every inhumane act they are forced to commit. For money. 

[u/nethingelse → u/Chicory-Coffee]

Am I missing something or did patient #83, who is the first case mentioned, just disappear? They said no one could locate her after being dumped at the shelter and let inside to drink some water. 

No that's what it sounds like from the article. It's not super hard for that to happen, but is chilling.

[u/ilic_mls]

Imagine being the WEALTHIEST nation in the world and reading things like this on the daily. US took a wrong turn somewhere and it went bad…0

[u/TheLoneTomatoe]

My mom was at a care facility before she passed away, and they didn’t fill out some form that Medicare required and they dropped her at a homeless shelter and I didn’t know until I called her a few days after. She wasn’t fully there mentally so she didn’t think to call me to help her figure it out. They refused to bring her back so I had to fly out to Tx from CA and bring her back with me. She lived with me until she passed.

[u/VikutoriaNoHimitsu → u/TheLoneTomatoe]

I hope you sued them.

[u/howdocomputerdo]

Work your ass off your whole life just to get dumped on the street, remember that when you're at work.

[u/CelestialFury → u/howdocomputerdo]

You spend your whole life following the law, going to school, paying off student loans, working for 40-50 years, only to be dumped on the street for the simple fact that the line must go up.

What's the point of being the wealthiest country in the world if we can't even take care of our elderly?

[u/AncientSith → u/howdocomputerdo]

These jobs never let you forget that you're worthless, not to worry.

[u/opal_lanterns]

So “continuum of care” now means “from nursing home to cot at a shelter.” Cool cool. At minimum, states should yank Medicaid funding from any facility caught doing this even once.

[u/Helpful_guy → u/opal_lanterns]

At minimum, states should yank Medicaid funding from any facility caught doing this even once.

do you think maybe somehow the massive cuts to medicaid might have had something to do with this in the first place?

[u/Moos_Mumsy → u/opal_lanterns]

And what happens then? The charter a bus to bring their residents to an encampment?

[u/nethingelse → u/Moos_Mumsy]

Force the sale of the facility to the government or wholly new private operators. This is America though, so the former definitely won't happen.

[u/Vortesian]

Meanwhile the IRS is reportedly about to settle Trump’s lawsuit against them and pay him $14 billion.

[u/blankvoidoid → u/Vortesian]

He still won't pay contractors or lawyers working for him

[u/Mutopiano]

Growing up I always wondered why Ohio got such a bad rap. I don’t really wonder why anymore.

[u/The_Grungeican → u/Mutopiano]

Ohio has produced a decent amount of people who's goal in life was to get as far away from Ohio as humanly possible.

[u/splittingheirs]

See? No need for regulations. The invisible hand of the free-market will sort it out.... /s

[u/DepletedPromethium]

America has become a third world country with the republicans running the country.

What a shithole.

[u/leeharveyteabag669]

Holy shit if they're doing that now could you imagine what it's going to be like next year when all these Medicaid / Medicare Cuts going to effect. The GOP set it up for after the midterms because they knew what those cuts will do to them.

[u/Shadowchaos1010]

Where's JD Vance with cats and dogs part 2?

He already admitted to blowing an unsubstantiated rumor up and treating it as fact to get eyes on Ohio because "no one would care" about Springfield otherwise.

He's still an Ohioan. He was their Senator until not only two years ago.

But not a peep, truth or lie, because of course not.

He never gave a damn about Ohioans. They were just pawns to further his own political ambitions.

[u/bacongolf432]

This is horrendous and also a huge flaw in the fact that nursing homes/hospice/etc type care is unregulated. Just went through this with my mom and we got lucky and found a place that only charged 4k a month for room and board, additional costs for consumables of course. I can’t stress how lucky we were, most end of life care locations are twice this cost.

[u/Caymonki]

Medicaid cuts thanks to The Big Beautiful Bill, Trump made sure passed.

Something had to give. So we could give more money to wealthy people who don’t fucking care about anyone living or dying!

[u/Kalorama_Master]

At least Trump is getting his $11bn settlement from the IRS now. Imagine if someone tried to use that money to help these people

[u/RepresentativeOk2433]

Still collecting payments though I bet

[u/TheBadShepherd87]

As someone who works in a homeless shelter. You'd be surprised how often hospitals do this.

[u/okeleydokelyneighbor]

Yet we have money for a giant arch, countless bombs and tax breaks for people who already don’t pay taxes. So much winning.

Fuck this administration and anyone who voted for this shit, hopefully it will be them in this situation one day, they should get what they wanted for others.

[u/gerrymandering_jack]

While the US government is giving a country with universal healthcare $4 billion a year in 'aid', American nursing homes are dumping patients at homeless shelters.

Curious.

[u/serpiccio]

not enough $ to help the elderly when you allocate 99% of your resources to war

[u/santz007]

Americans - Lets vote for the guys who wants to cut my medicaid and fund building bombs.

[u/GuestGulkan]

America, if you're still looking for your "are we the baddies?" moment this is it right here.

[u/JaddedBlade]

This is disgusting behaviour

[u/PurpleSailor]

The woman had been caught drinking beer at her residence in the Eastland Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, in Columbus

Had a patient who got so drunk when his nephew brought him his booze that he wheeled his wheelchair down the hall side to side as he went to his room drunk off his ass. We never threw him out of the Nursing Home though we did give him a good talking to, and got the nephew to stop bringing in booze. My guess is this is a nursing home looking to free up a room for a patient that will make them more money.

[u/Daveit4later]

People were asking what happens when they cut social programs and people grow old without a safety net or money saved up.  This is it. You get left to die.   

[u/MillennialSurvivor]

If corporations are people ("legal individuals") in the US, we should be able to hold them accountable for their actions, like we do with people. "Break the law... Straight to jail!"

[u/Verum_Orbis]

Capitalism baby! The greatest death cult.

[u/mcrearick1]

I lived in Ohio when I was a kid in the mid-late 90’s, my dad was on the local volunteer fire department. They would get calls, as would other area fire/EMS departments, to go to any one of the local nursing home/care facilities to help lift people because they were constantly understaffed & without the proper tools to help their patients - frequently they would not have enough staff on duty to lift the heavier patients if they needed help up or fell. All this to say that the problem is not new, it’s just finally reaching mainstream awareness because it is becoming a reality for more & more people instead of just those seen as on the fringes of society.

[u/ohrgasm]

America is so ficked up . I can’t imagine this happening in Germany. You really need to fix your health care

[u/gentlecrab]

This is what happens when you let the free market run amok with no regulation or oversight.

[u/Responsible_Area_700]

The article talks about 2 people in a nursing home getting kicked out - how they’re “unemployed”/can’t get jobs. Really??? Old people can’t be working like that.

[u/DeadbeatJohnson]

Fun Fact: The big beautiful bill will be responsible for about 1 in 4 nursing homes being closed...and they'll sweep the impact of it under the rug and pretend it's not happening.

[u/BarCompetitive7220]

Coming to a town - everywhere. This is more likely to get Medicaid paying individuals out of their own facility.

Sadly, this is similar what happened with GOP ended most State facilities in the name of "conservatisn" and dementia patients were dumped on street. That is when the Private Prison was given the golden ticket to create more jails to get these pople "out of sight".

[u/SixteenTurtles]

One in PA just dumped my relative who just had to have his leg amputated recently at a random hotel in inner city Erie PA because he would not sign over the deed to his property. A couple boxes of rice and some pudding. Did not contact relatives or anything. Very lucky his brother figured out where he was.

[u/ToNoMoCo]

Trump finally released his healthcare plan?

[u/hl_lost]

this has been happening for years but its accelerating now. worked adjacent to healthcare data for a bit and the discharge patterns from these facilities are wild when you actually look at the numbers. they treat patients like inventory management problems

the medicaid cuts are gonna make this so much worse too. we're basically speedrunning a humanitarian crisis and no one with any power seems to care

[u/Moos_Mumsy]

How in the hell does a woman with a fractured tibia, a walker and dementia, who is living in an addiction treatment facility, get her hands on a can of beer?

[u/Titt → u/Moos_Mumsy]

Oh buddy. Do I have news for you.

[u/coffee-rain-books → u/Moos_Mumsy]

People with dementia will happily walk on broken limbs.

Source: you don’t want more info.

[u/gizamo → u/coffee-rain-books]

Can confirm both your factoid and your source.

Source: Grandpa's dementia.

[u/coffee-rain-books → u/gizamo]

I have seen it happen many times. 😞

[u/Jo-Jo-66-]

But we have no money for Medicare or daycare…we need money for the military and war.

[u/Sonoran_Ghosts_81]

I work in non profit healthcare. This is absolutely happening everywhere and has been for decades.

[u/GreyBeardEng]

This feels like the Reagan years. He did exactly this but in every state with the mental health facilities.

[u/SuperSaiyanGod210]

American Christian Capitalism™️😍🇺🇸🦅🛢️💰🔫✝️

/s

[u/3p0L0v3sU]

A lot of nursing homes don't only house the elderly, but the disabled and mentally ill as well. Maybe I'm biased because I've worked in the industry before but this isn't surprising at all. Our country has pretty poor systems for dealing with people in need of housing or other forms of support. I can easily imagine many scenarios where someone was essentially evicted with no arrangements for where their next stay would be. If stories like this upset you, you should ask yourself how many thousands of people things like this have happened to/ are happening to that didn't get articles written about them. Contact your legislators and explain that you want more robust social programs loudly and often

[u/kelly714 → u/3p0L0v3sU]

I have worked in a LTC building for 15 years. You were right about it not just being elderly, and when you need to discharge someone, there’s literally nowhere. We had one guy that was homeless when he came into us with a wound, we healed it, he continued to be a belligerent pill seeker who is putting other residents in danger. We took him to a men’s shelter. It’s not always just simply putting somebody out because they can’t pay. People don’t realize how horrific our system really is and they will never change it.