ADAPT announces 10 worst states providing alternatives to Nursing Homes
Colorado is a “DUMPING GROUND” for Individuals avoiding nursing homes in other states

Mike McCartey

Mike McCartey strolled down the halls and into unfinished rooms of the Liberty House Tuesday recalling what the place was like when he lived there for a year. Liberty House is being rehabilitated from a nursing home into integrated, accessible apartments in Denver. When Mike lived at the site at 1500 Hooker it was called Heritage, later renamed to O’Hara Rehabilitation, a nursing home with a reputation for abuse, neglect and wrongful death.

“I was here for about a year,” said Mike McCartey of Boulder. “The place was real dreary, you had to lock your stuff up because it got stolen.”

Mike McCartey and Rick Viator did not want to live in a Nursing Home, so they made use of Colorado’s Home and Community based waiver. Mike moved out of a nursing home and into his own apartment in Boulder, saving the state the high cost of facility care.

Rick, on the other hand, moved away from family in Louisiana because that state does not provide home and community options to nursing homes. ADAPT, the nation’s largest grassroots disability rights organization, released a list of the 10 worst states for community services this week. Louisiana was first on that list.

Babs Johnson (right) and Lohoama Osment tour Liberty House. Lohoama was a resident when the site was a nursing home.

“Many of us in Louisiana are utterly embarrassed by being at the top of this list,” said Lois Simpson, Executive Director of the Advocacy Center in Louisiana. “And ADAPT’s announcement comes right when the nursing home lobby is meeting here in New Orleans, looking for even more ways to capture federal dollars and preserve their government subsidized monopoly, while our friends and relatives remain incarcerated in institutional settings.” 

LaTonya Reeves moved to Colorado to avoid a nursing home in Memphis. Tennessee was six from the bottom in ADAPT’s findings that were gathered from official Medicaid statistics and a national survey of advocates. Following Rick’s home state of Louisiana is Mississippi, Washington DC, Illinois and Indiana.

The national bias of Medicaid funding has made Colorado a haven for people with disabilities who wish to evade forced institutionalization. Louisiana spends 90.3% of Medicaid Long Term Care (LTC) dollars on nursing homes and ICF-MR facilities. Although Colorado has nearly an even division of the money spent on facilities and money for home and community services, the Medicaid statue requires institutional care while community services are optional. 

“The Medicaid system makes it easier to cut home services,” said Dawn Russell of Boulder ADAPT, “even though nursing homes are the most expensive and least desired kind of long-term care.”

Rounding out the list of ten worst states are Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio and Georgia. These states emphasize the need for nationwide Medicaid reform such as the Medicaid Community Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA). Introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D,IA) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R, PA) MiCASSA, will end the prejudice toward funding facilities rather than more desirable community options.

“People wonder why states like Louisiana spend so much money on nursing homes, rather than on the less costly community-based services that every poll and research study says Americans want,” said Bob Kafka, National ADAPT Organizer. “Well, the answer is simple. Congress keeps voting in a way that perpetuates the nursing home industry being a long-term care monopoly. A monopoly that will continue to be subsidized by our tax dollars until Congress votes to reform Medicaid policy to remove the institutional bias.” 

Liberty House

On November 15, The Atlantis Community in Denver will have an official dedication of Liberty House in Denver.