“Shirley Holtz, 91, used a walker to get around. She had dementia and was enrolled in hospice care. Despite her age and infirmity, Holtz was evicted from the assisted-living facility she called home for four years because she relied on government health insurance for low-income seniors,” Christopher Rowland writes over at The Washington Post. “Holtz was one of 15 residents told to vacate Emerald Bay Retirement Community near Green Bay, Wis., after the facility stopped accepting payment from a state-sponsored Medicaid program. … A recent spate of evictions has ousted dozens of assisted-living residents in Wisconsin who depended on Medicaid to pay their bills — an increasingly common practice, according to industry representatives. The evictions highlight the pitfalls of the U.S. long-term care system, which is showing fractures from the pandemic just as a wave of 73 million baby boomers is hitting an age where they are likely to need more day-to-day care. About 4.4 million Americans have some form of long-term care paid for by Medicaid, the state-federal health system for the poor, a patchy safety net that industry representatives say pays facilities too little. Residents of assisted-living facilities — promoted as a homier, more appealing alternative to nursing homes — face an especially precarious situation. While federal law protects Medicaid beneficiaries in nursing homes from eviction, the law does not protect residents of assisted-living facilities, leaving them with few options. … In Wisconsin, residents who entered facilities on Medicaid, as well as those who drained their private savings after moving in and subsequently enrolled in Medicaid, have been affected. ‘It’s a good illustration of how Medicaid assisted-living public policy is still in its Wild West phase, with providers doing what they choose in many cases, even though it’s unfair to consumers,’ said Eric Carlson, a lawyer and director of long-term services and support advocacy at the nonprofit group Justice in Aging. ‘You can’t just flip in and out of these relationships and treat the people as incidental damage.’” Christopher Rowland, “Assisted-living homes are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors,” The Washington Post.
