Atlanta holds the distinction of being the only city (aside from the nation's capitol) that ADAPT will have visited three times.
The American Health Care Association will be holding their convention there at the same time, and while some in this nursing home industry lobby group are beginning to see the light from ADAPT's torch, many others still seem to need a push. But just because they feel the heat of our breath on the backs of their necks doesn't mean we should turn off the pressure yet.
ADAPT will also be in Atlanta on Election Day. Guess who is from a district just outside Atlanta and is up for re-election this year? Our favorite House Speaker, Newt Gingrich himself. This may be the perfect time to remind him of a promise he has made to ADAPT on several occasions, but has never lived up to.
Perhaps the most intriguing call for ADAPT supporters to join us in Atlanta this fall comes from the editorial pages of the Atlanta Journal which, its motto claims, "covers Dixie like the dew."
Recent state funding cuts for the nursing home industry caused the industry to squeal, threatening cuts pose dire threats to those they are "serving." However, the Journal looked into these claims and found something wrong with the logic.
The May 10th Journal editorial notes that "While 100 of the state's 341 nursing homes were cited for such serious violations of patient care last year that they were forbidden from taking any new patients, nursing homes in the last three years tried to bill taxpayers $23.3 million in Medicaid charges that are not reimbursable. Those included such things as bonuses to CEOs already making $600,000 to $800,000 salaries mostly paid by Medicaid, Lincoln Continentals for transportation 'of patients,' and other excessive business perks. If they just subtracted their shameful excesses, the cuts would hardly be noticeable...." concludes the Journal.
With extraordinary insight in its May 6th editorial, the Journal reasons "What has allowed the nursing homes to grow fat at public expense is state policy on care for the elderly and disabled. Georgia focuses nearly all its resources on institutional settings instead of community care. Roughly 40% of the state nursing home patients don't need to be in the facilities, according to Department of Medical Assistance Director Marge Smith. The trouble is, they have nowhere else to go that is covered by Medicaid... Until regulations are rewritten and community-based care programs become the rule rather than the exception, nursing homes will continue to milk the system for everything they can."