Nursing home residents could move into community under program
January 30th, 2006 by RespiteMatch.comALBANY, N.Y. Senior citizens living in nursing homes could soon start moving back into communities around New York state.
The state Department of Health last month applied for a waiver to let nursing home residents on Medicaid apply to receive care at home, in adult day care or assisted living facilities. Up to 5-thousand seniors statewide over a three-year period would be shifted out of nursing homes under the program.
With approval expected next month, the program would begin as early as June.
The state Health Department estimates that assisted-living care costs half as much as nursing home care and has recently undertaken several measures to curb the state’s ballooning spending in the area.
