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Sure, but 90k a head nursing home charges are not the only streams of income either. Anyway, business approach is an obvious dead end since few of the American geezers can afford the sticker price, the scheme is held together by government handouts, and one of the surest thing about mixing private and public - public will be ripped off BIG time. It's an ideological tabu in USA, but if government subsidizes something in a major way, it's far more cost-efficient for the government to own and run it outright.
WASHINGTON DC—Today, Brian Lee, Executive Director of Families for Better Care, called recent nursing home earnings “bountiful,” with booming profits fueling “plush” executive salaries while caregiver ranks are drained to “dangerously low” levels.
For the second time this fiscal year, publicly traded nursing home companies reported, “profits that exceed expectations”, “surging operational income (as much as 398%)”, and “performance that outran fairly aggressive projections.”
While the industry groans that it’s “been battered by a series of destabilizing federal funding cuts” (along with states “threatening” to reduce Medicaid budgets), nursing home earning reports show “record Medicare revenues” with most companies enjoying relatively stable or “improving” Medicaid rates in 39 states.
Construction building cost under one basic 25,000 sq foot two story design is between 4.5-4.9 million as a national average. Add in equipment etc and watch it soar. Where is the money to come from? Investors and venture capital companies. With that money comes a need to generate profit and a good ROI or no construction money unless you have your own deep pockets.
The facility operator, SecureCare Options LLC, incurred startup costs totaling $1.6 million from mid-November until the end of May. The state had reimbursed $1.3 million of those costs as of July 31, according to documents covering the period from November 2012 through July 2013.
Startup invoices cover a wide range of costs, from licensing and legal fees, payroll, utilities, installation of food service equipment, electrical and fire protection upgrades, purchase of medical devices and record-keeping equipment, new locking and alarm systems, security cameras and a new computer network and associated technology purchases. Onsite private security for the period from Dec. 7, 2012, through April was also included.
"This was the first new nursing home license issued in Connecticut in many years, so there was virtually no precedent for this project from an expenditure standpoint," Landi said in an emailed response to questions. "We are confident that we are providing care in an efficient manner, and we expect that the level of efficiency will
continue to increase as the nursing home increases its occupancy."
The above was an existing facility that was purchased for over a million etc etc.
It is expensive either way and either tax payers pick up the cost or investors get a return that is high enough to convince them the merits of investing.
Construction building cost under one basic 25,000 sq foot two story design is between 4.5-4.9 million as a national average. Add in equipment etc and watch it soar. Where is the money to come from? Investors and venture capital companies. With that money comes a need to generate profit and a good ROI or no construction money unless you have your own deep pockets.
"Need to generate profit" and good ROI wouldn't exist if government owned and operated facilities it OVERpays big time for. Again, business approach is dead end since it relies on the government handouts pushing prices into stratosphere (while keeping wages of the people who actually do all the work at poverty levels), any situation where business profits rely on the government contracts and rebates is ripe for corruption. There are thousands of ways private contractors bilk taxpayers for money. Uncle Sam does a lot of stupid & wasteful things in the name of the ideological purity.
But that's all secondary, the most important thing is that modern way of life throw old geezers in the garbage pile (especially those without stockpiles of cash), it age segregates and isolates old and young and in between. We all must run rat race, and a private room in a subsidized nursing home will be our "reward" for bowing to our invisible masters 24/7. It doesn't really matter if it's $10k/year or $80k/year room.
"Need to generate profit" and good ROI wouldn't exist if government owned and operated facilities it OVERpays big time for. Again, business approach is dead end since it relies on the government handouts pushing prices into stratosphere (while keeping wages of the people who actually do all the work at poverty levels), any situation where business profits rely on the government contracts and rebates is ripe for corruption. There are thousands of ways private contractors bilk taxpayers for money. Uncle Sam does a lot of stupid & wasteful things in the name of the ideological purity.
But that's all secondary, the most important thing is that modern way of life throw old geezers in the garbage pile (especially those without stockpiles of cash), it age segregates and isolates old and young and in between. We all must run rat race, and a private room in a subsidized nursing home will be our "reward" for bowing to our invisible masters 24/7. It doesn't really matter if it's $10k/year or $80k/year room.
Sorry, didn't mean to get you going. Not sure about all these invisible folks but have a good one.
"Need to generate profit" and good ROI wouldn't exist if government owned and operated facilities it OVERpays big time for. Again, business approach is dead end since it relies on the government handouts pushing prices into stratosphere (while keeping wages of the people who actually do all the work at poverty levels), any situation where business profits rely on the government contracts and rebates is ripe for corruption. There are thousands of ways private contractors bilk taxpayers for money. Uncle Sam does a lot of stupid & wasteful things in the name of the ideological purity.
But that's all secondary, the most important thing is that modern way of life throw old geezers in the garbage pile (especially those without stockpiles of cash), it age segregates and isolates old and young and in between. We all must run rat race, and a private room in a subsidized nursing home will be our "reward" for bowing to our invisible masters 24/7. It doesn't really matter if it's $10k/year or $80k/year room.
That is why government thru HUD is starting to provide funds to help build more elder care facilities has boomers come of age. More like assisted living than nurse homes many end up at that do not need that level. They are restricted and built for elderly with baths types ;wider wheel chair doors and other things like emergency assistance call systems built in which is what government funds in construction. here they are single story because space is there and its safer in emergency. Our last government owned housing unit is also being torn down in nearby town to be a section 8 replacement being built because of it actually being lower cost than government owned and operated. Federal government in time wants to get out of the business of owning and maintaining and just subsidize. At times the cost is low as the property is local government owned and that is their funding input.hey are very nice and with a lot to attract older people because of restrictions and the services available in such a concentrate area of elderly.Local bus system for example run special buses that are smaller to them and drop off at designated location by need such as doctors offices. Our first was built perhaps 6 years years ago and have worked very well.
Sorry, didn't mean to get you going. Not sure about all these invisible folks but have a good one.
Enjoy your private room, you jumped through the hoops all your life to get into, you deserve it, especially if it means healthy ROI for the private investors. I bet some healthy ROI is to be made on disposing of your body too. Nothing goes to waste but a geezer' squeal, yet you are not sure about why your children can't take care of you the way humans did for the past 100,000 years, what invisible social forces impose age segregation in the concentrated geezer facilities. I bet you do know.
Food for thought. Pension funds invest in hedge funds and hedge funds invest in nursing home start up so part of the ROI helps to fund our pensions. Also many of us invest in health care sector funds and broader market funds that investin the senior care industry so part of our investment income is helped by those mutual fund roi. It is all inter connected. Not sure my kids want to live with me in either assisted living or nursing homes. If you mean age 55 housing which is optional and voluntary. Yes if you want you can pay a pretty penny for a funeral but again your choice. Aging in America involves a lot and has multiple aspects to it. We are all marching a path some not the same path.
Curmudgeon, have you ever been to a Greek island for any amount of time? There's nothing much else to do except enjoy growing old. As you might know, even in the the 1990s most Greeks living on islands didn't have telephones with long-distance service. The towns had phone stores where people would go to make a call. Before computers were invented, most Greeks born and raised on islands had very little contact with outsiders save the vacationers who double the population during summer months. If they were going to stay on the island they were born on, their ways to make a living were limited and usually dictated by whatever business their family was in. Young men in Greece have compulsory military service (of 1.5 years or less in most cases). Then they come home and start a job, which in almost every case involves a mid-day break of two hours or more. Greek men have virtually nothing to do with child rearing and homemaking, even today. After work they spend their evenings chilling with friends. Life expectancy in Greece is, indeed, quite high. But I'd be willing to bet that's due to the amount of exercise they get walking or riding bikes nearly everywhere they go, combined with the lack of stress inherent in their relaxed pace of life and their religious beliefs, and enhanced by their regular (but usually not overindulged) intake of alcoholic beverages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ipoetry
I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm invisible to the younger population. I'm just the proverbial little old lady and I'm only 63. Where are these places that revere their elders? Italy. I was there a few years ago and I was oggled as if I was a hot mama. I saw no nursing homes. The younger generations make room for their aging family members.
I hate to admit it, but we women are virtually invisible once we pass menopause. I'm always saying that women of a certain age ought to be in charge of security everywhere because no one notices us. Or perhaps we should exact our revenge by becoming thieves and spies because, by the same token, no one would suspect us. In Italy, it's true that the elderly are usually incorporated into the family more than they are here. But it's no day at the beach. In exchange for their room and board most Italian grandmas work their butts off. They might be revered, but they're revered maids. They babysit while the young women work and they cook and clean. I don't think people in assisted living homes in the U.S. are doing that. It seems to me that the main reasons elders are not incorporated into American families are: we have the most mobile society in the world, our country is so much bigger than others (children often live thousands of miles from parents), and many of our elders show no interest in moving in with family until they are of the age that they require care themselves. As for the ogling, I can do without it as it always seemed pretty insincere to me. If the males will paw anything that moves, where's the compliment in that?
I read about these cultures where people 50+ are still expected to be vital, sexual, fully alive and productive and yes, interacting with all ages and I think...that's where we need to live...why? because even if my culture doesn't want to accept it - I am vital, sexual, fully alive and productive - not only that, but once I crossed over 50, I suddenly found myself viewing life differently - in ways that gives others pause to listen....if they can see past the age difference.
C
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