Nursing Homes

USA Today and our own local Island Packet newspapers have strories on the results of the latest 5 star ranking system employed by the federal Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

Two local nursing homes received top ratings. According to the packet:

"TidePointe's Broad Creek Care Center and the Preston Health Center at the Cypress of Hilton Head Island received five stars. The Seabrook's Fraser Health Center earned four stars. The Life Care Center of Hilton Head had one star."      

Kudos to the unnamed director of a top ranked facility to mention how imperfect this ranking sytem is. The Life Care Center, which received a 1 star rating, is the only home mentioned that accepts MediCAID as a payment source where the the others are primarily private pay for long-term stays. The Medicaid re-imbursement system hinders the Life Care Center in providing all of the same  services as the others. And, as Lt. Governer A. Bauer notes correctly, there is no substitute for a first hand visit to a nursing home before deciding on its acceptability.

Also interesting is how the USA Today story notes that not-for-profit nursing homes generally ranked higher than for-profits across the country.  Not-for profit homes usually accept MediCAID as source of payment and it is often a misconception that MediCAID nursing homes are automatically inferior to private pay homes.