Long Island Elder Law & Estate Planning

An elder law attorney at Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC  can provide assistance in researching nursing home care options to find a quality nursing home for yourself or for a loved one. It can be very important to find the right care facility because not all nursing homes are created equal. You need to pay attention to the quality and reputation of any nursing home that you are considering for yourself or for a loved one in order to make certain that the home will provide the highest possible quality of life once you or your family member becomes a resident.  elder law attorney

Concerns about nursing home quality are not only an issue when you look for a nursing home to move to or to help a family member move into. Concerns about quality can also affect whether the state allows the sale of a nursing home to go through, as a recent article in Biz Journals explains. A nursing home in New York was scheduled to be sold, but regulators have questioned whether the sale should be completed when the organization making the purchase was found to have other facilities it owned with low star ratings from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Questions about Nursing Home Quality Could Affect the Sale of a New York Nursing Home

According to Biz Journal, plans have been underway for around a year to allow for an ownership change for a New York residential health care facility. The New York State Department of Health even approved the sale and recommended that it be allowed to go through.

The sale would result in the new owners paying $2.8 million to acquire the 140-bed care facility. It is currently owned by a healthcare group and it would be transferred to an investment group that is based in Long Island.

However, the Public Health and Health Planning Council must approve changes in ownership and operation of nursing home care facilities. The review committee held a meeting in July and the questioned whether to support the deal at that meeting as a result of the fact that the potential new owners of the care facility own other nursing homes that have received lower ratings from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In particular, 13 out of the 23 different nursing homes owned by the Long-Island based investment group currently have two star ratings or less on a scale of one to five, where five stars is the best rating given y Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The group that hopes to buy the facility indicates that its low rating is because of changes in the method of reporting staffing numbers at care facilities and has indicated that it has increased its efforts to recruit more staff members and to put new quality control measures in place.  However, this didn’t reassure the Public Health and Health Planning Council, which did not approve the application for the sale to go through.

The plans will likely be reconsidered at some future date, and the current owner of the nursing care facility expects that the sale will eventually go through.

Getting Help from an Elder Law Attorney

A nursing home’s reputation is very important because it is one of the major indicators that will help you to determine if the care facility will provide a good quality of life for you or your loved one if you or a family member must move to a nursing home. Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC  can help you to research care facilities to make certain that you find the right one that will meet your needs or the needs of your loved one who must move to a home. We can also help you put together a plan to make certain you are able to afford a high quality nursing home if moving to one becomes necessary.

To find out more about the ways in which our firm can help with all aspects of the nursing home planning process, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online to start making your customized plans for nursing home care. Call today to learn more.

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About Mark S. Eghrari, Estate Planning Attorney

Mark S. Eghrari is an attorney in private practice in Smithtown, New York. He has been in practice since 1988. Mark S. Eghrari provides extensive estate and tax planning services to individuals and businesses. Mr. Eghrari’s primary focus is helping clients avoid probate, minimize or eliminate Federal and State Estate taxes and protect their assets from the high cost of nursing care, if they become ill.