valley views Let’s do nothing T
he older people in our nursing homes have a problem. The state puts people on Medicaid and promises them services, and then doesn’t pay those who provide these services at a rate that is commensurate to the actual costs. Seventy five percent of those in our nursing home are on Medicaid and down to their last $2,000. Valley View, a nonprofit nursing home in Glasgow did pretty well in 2019 and 2020. Then about mid 2021 it hit. We were dealing with numerous new regulations without funding, Covid outbreaks that required quarantine and meant we couldn’t accept new residents, families that didn’t want to put their family members
into quarantine, a severe ate day to day. Mistakes happen, fine. shortage of nurses and That is why the State of other staff, and agencies Montana has $400 milwho charged us three lion in reserves. When I times the normal salary for traveling nurses and was in the legislature, we always had a bill to take sometimes tried to steal care of extra fire expensthe nurses we had. es, disasters, The ulticost overruns mate mistake made that Daryl Toews in our prisFormer MT State Senator ons, and any will need other crisis to be fixed that happened at the next between sessions. This legislative session is the $0.65/day increase in the money was okayed by the Governor, and the legisrate State Medicaid pays lature approved this the nursing homes received next session. Our reserves less than a 1% rate inat Valley View will be crease during a pandemgone by midsummer. ic, while caring for the We have had donations most vulnerable Montanand received some county ans. A similar 0.3% rate money, but it will not be increase is scheduled for July 1 - less than 1% over enough. Valley View and other nursing homes are a two-year period. These rates are what these facil- looking at what closing will look like, and the ities depend on to oper-
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Life goes on, right? I
had a breakthrough yesterday — and I don’t mean metaphorically. Wars rage, countless humans suffer, the rich get richer, life goes on. I still have my morning coffee. But not yesterday. What happened — about 5 a.m. — was a fleeting insight into life beyond its small certainties and routines. When life suddenly spins out of control, the Great Unknown is momentarily present. 10 - April 27, 2022
the routine. I have decided to write about it, or try to write Another part of my about it, to honor the vulgeezerhood is a condition nerable everywhere. called peripheral neuropathy, my special conunThat hour of the morning is not my drum, once normal get-up described to Robert C. Koehler me as a discontime, but as I Peacevoice enter geezernect between the nerves hood (I turned in my feet 75 half a year ago) I find myself waking and my brain. I still have up throughout the night feelings there, I just lack a and heading with sudden portion of control. My balurgency to the bathroom. ance is iffy, especially if I’m No big deal. This is part of barefoot. And the medical
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cost involved. All state help related to covid ended in October, but covid didn’t end. We are in year three of high costs, decreased revenues and severe workforce shortages. Governor Gianforte has been the most troubling. He sells himself as a businessman which is why he got my vote. ARPA workforce funds are readily available to help with recruitment and retention of workers, but his answer has been no. His response to this nursing home problem is to do nothing. A current example of doing nothing is the mess at the southern border. It shows us what doing nothing looks like. You do not do anything bad, you just do nothing. A businessman who has run a
business for a short time may think that makes sense, but by not helping with short term money through a crisis, it often costs more in the long run. If many of the more rural nursing homes close it is because they do not have short term help. We will then need places for the elderly so the government will spend a lot of money building nursing homes in the bigger cities. Tens of millions of dollars spent in a shortterm crisis will save hundreds of millions of dollars on future spending. The time has come for the governor and my republican legislative friends to do something. Let’s prove that we can not only start new businesses but keep the older nursing home businesses
world is apparently clueless about it. Nonetheless, the condition is also only a modest deal — it’s part of my life. I work with it. I use a cane or walking sticks, at least some of the time. I’m also conscious of the need to stay focused and balanced. A nuisance situation is worked into the routine. Things could be so much worse. My life goes on. But yesterday morning, 5 a.m., yeah, you guessed
it. I got up, put my feet on the floor, started walking to the bathroom when . . . whoa! What? Huh? For some unknown reason I began to totter. For an unforgettable second or two, there were no parameters or certainties in my life. I was helpless. I was hurtling into the unknown. I tipped backward, fell against the nightstand and — kersmash! — slammed my right elbow into the
Valley Journal
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in business. And maybe taking care of our elderly can be valued as one of those “high paying jobs” worth training for and having. Daryl Toews is a Former Montana State Senator and Valley View Home board member.
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