Please prioritize Medicare coverage for dementia care. Currently there is no coverage for skilled nursing care for a dementia diagnosis. This is wrong and creates a crisis for families with enough resources that they don’t qualify for Medicaid. It ruins families of middle class people.
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Skilled nursing care can be covered with the use of a dx code that provides specific enough information regarding the type of dementia ie. Alzheimer’s , Lewy body etc.
This is only under the Medicare part a benefit which requires a 3 day hospital stay, the need for skilled nursing/therapy services, and ongoing improvement for up to 100 days.
What I believe you are referring to is more custodial care, where a person is a resident of the nursing facility. In this case no Medicare b does not pay. The problem with this is the places that are affordable can often be for profit, and owned by people who are honestly in it for the money. Until those people can stop making money off of providing people with poor care the long term care system will always be difficult for the lower income families.
Regulations are strict, overkill in some ways. But the government cannot shut down all of these facilities because where would the residents go?
I’m not positive how it can be fixed but someone I’m sure has an idea of how these individuals can stop taking advantage of our elderly population.
I’m certain that you are correct about the facilities that are profit driven but the topic is one that deserves lots of attention. Most patients who require long term care for dementia are cared for at home requiring incredible financial and emotional hardship for middle class families. Solutions that involve institutional intervention are never perfect but neither is burdened families and the lack of support from the health care system.