The Nursing Home Industry is Buying Tennessee
Posted by
Dan FrithMarch 20, 2008 6:13 AMWhy does the state of Tennessee spend $1.2 billion for long-term care? That amount is 98 percent of the Tenncare (Tennessee's equivalent of Medicaid) budget, which ranks Tennessee last nationally in its funding mix of nursing homes versus home and community-based care, according to the TennCare Bureau. Why? Do you think money could be at the root of such spending?
How did Tennessee get on the "trailing edge" of long term care? Advocates pointed to the powerful nursing home industry in Tennessee when asked how the state itself shifted to spending 98 percent of its long-term care dollars on nursing homes. Tennessee's nursing home industry contributed $376,800 to the campaigns of current members of the General Assembly from 2004-2008, according to the combined political action committee disclosures of the two leading nursing home interests -- the Murfreesboro-based National Health Care Corp. (NHC) and the industry's lobbying organization, the Tennessee Health Care Association (THCA).
Besides campaign contributions, NHC and the THCA spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying-related expenditures. From Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007, the THCA spent between $400,000 and $500,000 on employing its 13 lobbyists, according to state records. NHC spent between $75,000 and $150,000 for its six lobbyists during the same time period.
Boy...money sure does talk! If only they would spend that money on treating pressure ulcers, decubitus ulcers, and to prevent dehydration and malnutrition!