A state legislator from Oklahoma partially owns two local nursing homes that are under critical eye. The homes, owned by Republican Doug Cox, have received criticism for mild failings that do not directly harm residents. But the shortcomings reflect a greater, national problem, says investigator Hugh Robert.
Robert says that the flaws in Cox’s home reflect the need for better nursing home legislation. “Even though it wasn’t the worst problems … the fact that they have a significant number of deficiencies would give rise to potential for negligence or abuse,” Robert told The Oklahoman.
Robert has been critical this legislative session of Cox for stripping Senate Bill 1459 of a requirement that all state nursing homes carry $250,000 of liability insurance. But Cox presents a valid point: passing that clause would put one third of homes out of business because they could not afford the high insurance.
Cox’s homes receieved 12 and 14 citations, exceeding the average of eight. The problems have since been fixed.
Cox said of his nursing homes, “I’m proud of the care we give. It’s real personalized care. Because it’s small, the help gets to know the patients well enough to where they almost consider it like family.”
Well, that is just not true. A third of the nursing homes would not go out of business. Based on a study that the house did last year, which in my opinion was very biased based on who they put on the committee, the cost to require insurane would be aroudn 2% of the amount that the nursing home receives from medicaid. Also, if Dr. Cox is that worried about reimbursement rates, he is in the legislature and can author legislation to increase them– even though they have increased over 100% in the last 5 years.
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