Ain't Nobody Home: Gap in California Law Lets Board and Care Home Operators Hide Foreclosures From Their Elderly Residents Until The Sheriff Comes Knocking At The Door
According to a recent New York Times article, When Foreclosure Threatens Elder Care Homes, that is the situation that Brenda Wing, pictured here, found herself in when she went to visit her 84-year-old father in the Northstar Manor care home in Woodland, here in Northern California. Records show that the home was in foreclosure but the homes owners gave their elderly residents no warning that eviction could be imminent, and they even lied to Brenda Wing when she asked them about it, telling her that there was nothing to worry about, and when she persisted, that it was none of her business.
How big of a problem is this? The New York Times analysis shows that here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are 1,600 board and care homes -- small residential care homes for elderly who need simple “custodial” care or assistance with activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, dressing and grooming – and that 16 percent of them have been in some stage of foreclosure since June 2006. That includes more than 100 homes under foreclosure in the last six months, with as many as 700 elderly residents affected.
Board and care home owners are taking advantage of a gap in California law, which lets them keep their elderly residents in the dark as to the care home’s financial troubles, even when foreclosure of the care home or eviction from the home is imminent. The board and care home owners involved would rather hide the foreclosure than take the chance that their elderly residents would move before the property was sold.
Anthony Chicotel, a Staff Attorney with advocacy group California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), who is working on changing the law, is quoted by the Times as pointing out that the elderly can be evicted “without any notice, without preparation, without any arrangements for an alternative residence. Not only are they losing their home, but they are losing the services that allow them to live.” To rectify that, CANHR has asked State Senator Mark Leno, to introduce legislation that would require care home owners to notify the licensing authority, and the elderly residents and their families, within 24 hours of notification of foreclosure, bankruptcy, missing a mortgage payment or the prospect of a utility cutoff. The proposed law would also fine owners who failed to do so $100 a day, and permanently disqualify them from operating elder-care homes in California.
What can you do to protect yourself from this type of situation or if you are in this type of situation?
1. Check the property address on a real estate website
such as www.zillow.com, which may list whether they
are current on their mortgage, whether the
property is in foreclosure or preforeclosure.
2. Ask the owner of the board and care if they are
behind on their mortagage, in pre-foreclosure or
foreclosure, whether they are any plans for the
property to change hands in the next year, and
whether they are having any financial
difficulties. Bring someone with you as a witness
so it won't be just your word against theirs.
3. Get the owner's commitment to inform you of any
difficulties that could force the sale of the
property, as soon as they materialize.
4. If you learn of foreclosure, contact the bank
(the name will be posted on the eviction
notice)directly and try to negotiate a delay
of the sale until you can relocate.
5. Consult a lawyer and call the state licensing
office, the Department of Social Services
Community Care licensing. Their website is
Click here to read the Times article.
In fact, it was a Republican Senator, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who originally made the Medicare proposal that is being labelled "death panel", back in 2007 when he co-sponsored a Medicare End-of-Life Planning Act. On August 10th, Senator Isakson told the Washington Post that analogizing physician counseling for advanced directives to "death panels" is "nuts."
To see President Obama address the death panel issue directly, look at this excerpt of his August 11th town hall meeting in Portsmouth New Hampshire -- click below
The sharp increase in the price of gas is having dire effects on the nation’s home health agencies, and in turn on the elderly and homebound individuals they help. According to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHCH), there are 12 million people nationwide who are so disabled that they cannot leave home without assistance, and who are able to live in their own homes, and avoid a nursing home because of the assistance they receive from home health agencies. Collectively, the NAHCH reports that home support agencies employees drive nearly 5 billion miles each year to care for homebound individuals.
Many home health agencies operate at break-even, and 44% of home care agencies reported that they LOST money during 2007, and the rising cost of gas was reportedly a big factor in their operating in the red.
The New York Times reports that employees of home health agencies, and volunteers of federal programs such as Meals On Wheels, who are expected to use their own cars and pay for their own gas, are also being affected. Katie Clark (pictured here), a single mother of two, drives 700 miles a week in rural Michigan to provide home care for Bill Harmon, 77, and his wife Evelyn, 85 (pictured here) who has Alzheimer’s and is unable to care for herself. Katie is paid $9 an hour, or $250 a week, to care for the Harmons, but has to pay for her own gas, which now totals a whopping $100 a week. Katie says that the Harmons “are just like family to me” but she may not be able to continue to care for them because of the high price of gas. “Some weeks I have to borrow money to get here” she is quoted as saying.
When Evelyn started to develop Alzheimer’s disease 8-10 years ago, her husband promised her "Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you as long as I can.” Now he says that without Katie’s help, he would have to put his wife in a nursing home, and “probably need to live in one himself.”
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is lobbying congress to take the following steps to help home health agencies help the elderly stay in their own homes and out of nursing homes:
1. Preserve the annual inflation updates for home health and hospice as provided in Medicare law.
2.Reinstate the 5 percent rural add on for home health services delivered to patients in rural areas.
3.Exempt home health agencies, hospices and their nurses and therapists from paying Federal gasoline taxes.
4. Recognize home telehealth between trained nurses and patients as the equivalent of in-home visits.
5. Retract the Medicare regulatory cuts of nearly 12% facing home health care in 2008-2011.
6. Withdraw the Medicare regulatory proposal to eliminate the Budget Neutrality Factor in the hospice wage index.
7. Grant home health providers priority status to fuel and supplies through “first responder” status in cases of public health emergencies and disaster situations.
To learn more about the National Association for Home Care and Hospice proposals, click here.
Introduced by Assembly Member Mike Feuer, AB 399 responds to the California Department of Public Health's longstanding failures to conduct timely and effective investigations of nursing home complaints. The failures are well documented in a series of government reports, including an April 2007 report by the California State Auditor. It shows the Department failed to timely complete more than 60 percent of 15,275 investigations conducted between July 2004 and April 2006, and that more than 500 complaints remained open for more than one year.
For nursing home residents, the broken investigation system is a matter of life and death. The slow investigations subject residents to continued mistreatment and also compromise the Department's ability to collect evidence. Most nursing homes face no consequences for abuse or neglect because the Department substantiates so few complaints (only one in six according to a 2007 study by the California Healthcare Foundation).
Even complaints involving deaths suffer extreme delays. This is especially true in cases involving AA citations, which involve a finding that neglect or abuse led to the death of a nursing home resident. Typical delays range from one to two years. See attached CANHR summary of recent AA citations.
"The veto is devastating to elder abuse victims in nursing homes," said Patricia McGinnis, CANHR's Executive Director. "It is shocking that the Governor won't commit to timely investigations of abuse and neglect."
Other than the Governor [picture here with President Bush], AB 399 faced no opposition. The California Legislature voted 117 - 1 in favor of it. AB 399 is supported by dozens of organizations, the nursing home industry, and citizens throughout California who see it as an historic opportunity to restore integrity to California's nursing home complaint investigation system.
The veto is just one of a series of vetoes of pro-family bills by Governor Schwarzenegger. For more information, read Julius Young's article in the California Progress Report:
"Schwarzenegger Vetoes Pro-Family Bills As Corporate Interests Trump Family Values"
Email the Governor and tell him what you think and that you vote - click here.
Some of Arnold’s funniest lines in the movie were when Arnold, as Detective Kimble, took charge and demanded action. Remember such lines as:
“You lack discipline!”
“Well I've got news for you! You are mine now! You belong to me!”
“Who is your daddy, and what does he do?“
"You tell him you didn't do your homework"
“I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, and I want them answered immediately.”
Arnold is now governor of our state. Unlike Detective John Kimble, Governor Schwarzenegger seems ready to accept excuses for inept and incompetent performance by government agencies that operate under his command. There is a bill sitting on Arnold’s desk, Assembly Bill 399 (Feuer), passed by the California legislature, that only requires the governor’s signature to become law. The bill would require the California Department of Health Services to complete investigations of complaints against nursing homes within 40 business days. The governor’s spokesperson says that he “hasn’t yet taken a position on whether he will sign the bill.”
What is he waiting for? All I can say is it’s time for the Governor to sign that bill and to tell the Department of Health Services to “stop whining.”
The Los Angeles Times did an article describing the types of delays that have prompted the bill.
In July 2006, 81-year-old Octavio “Nito” Jimenez (pictured here) was rushed from an Oxnard nursing home, Maywood Acres, by ambulance to an acute care hospital, where doctors found advanced, infected wounds on his heel and buttocks. The nursing home had told Octavio’s family only that he had “a little sore” on his foot.
His granddaughter Josie Valdez (pictured here) asked the county Ombudsman to investigate. The Ombudsman referred the matter to the state Department of Health Services, stating, “the family is very concerned that they will lose their father from neglect.”
Unfortunately, they were right. A few days later, Octavio passed away from an apparent heart attack. In the 15 months since the complaint was filed, the Department of Health Services still hasn’t investigated the complaint. “To this day, nobody has been able to tell me what the findings were.” Josie Valdez is quoted as saying. “It hurts families and it hurts the person unable to care for themselves.”
The Department of Health Services has proved time and time again that they will not complete investigations on their own accord. They need the fixed deadines provided by 399 to force them to complete investigations on time.
“* One year to investigate and impose a $100,000 fine against Westgate Gardens Care Center after an unattended 77-year-old resident choked on a grape and later died. Instructions in the resident's records indicated she was not to be served whole fruits or left alone when she ate.
* Eleven months to investigate and fine Beverly Healthcare Center in Stockton $80,000 after its air conditioner failed during a heat wave in July 2006. One resident died from hyperthermia caused by the high temperatures, and another resident was taken to the hospital with the same condition, the state said. The home has since changed its name to Golden Living Center-Stockton.
* Fourteen months to cite Manorcare Health Services in Hemet after an 83-year-old dementia patient fell out of his wheelchair, suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. He was supposed to be placed in chair with a lap cushion to prevent falls. The home was fined $75,000.
As Assemblyman Feuer says, the bill is needed to quickly flag problems at nursing homes and ensure they are corrected.”
"A timely investigation with timely results can make the difference literally between life and death sometimes," Feuer said. "Forty days is plenty of time to conduct a meaningful, finely grained, detailed investigation."
Arnold, residents of nursing homes need your help. Tell Department of Health Services, “Don’t procrastinate,” “I own you. You are mine now.” Give them some deadlines.