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Consumer Time

The National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) has issued a new publication that focuses on many of the problems in nursing home care and identifies several nursing home practices that may actually be illegal.

Called 20 Common Nursing Home Problems—and How to Resolve Them, it walks the reader through each problem, shows what the law says, and describes how to take positive action. Best of all, it decodes the law in easy-to-follow language.

For each of the 20 problems, the guide offers careful instructions for how a nursing home resident, family member or advocate should proceed in resolving it. Some of the issues covered include:

  • When a nursing home is required to follow the preferences of an individual resident;

  • When physical restraints and feeding tubes are illegal;

  • Why Medicare can’t terminate Part A reimbursement because a resident has “plateaued”;

  • How to obtain a Medicaid-certified bed for a resident currently in an uncertified bed;

  • When a nursing home must re-admit a Medicaid-eligible resident after a hospital stay of several weeks or months.


Anyone who’s ever spent time in a nursing home or has tried to help a loved one get the best care possible will recognize the value of the information this NSCLC guide provides.

Copies of the publication — which was prepared with a grant from the Commonwealth Fund — are available from NSCLC for only $9.95 each, plus shipping and handling.

For more information on ordering, call the National Senior Citizens Law Center: (202) 289-6976. The guide can also be downloaded free from the AFSCME website: www.afscme.org (click on “Retirees”).

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