Articles Posted in Elder Population Studies

A recent study estimates that financial abuse of elderly Americans defrauds these vulnerable citizens of almost $37 billion each. The report finds that almost 5 million senior citizens in America are victims of elder abuse each year. In New York alone, financial abuse of the elderly costs at least $1.5 billion a year. While the exact nature of financial abuse can be hard to notice for senior citizens with cognitive impairments, the legal definition perpetuated in the Older Americans Act of 2006 criminalizes “the fraudulent or otherwise illegal, unauthorized, or improper act or process of an individual… that uses the resources of an older individual for monetary or personal benefit, profit, or gain, or that results in depriving the older individual of their use or rightful access to benefits, resources, belongings, or assets.”

The report in Bloomberg Businessweek provides a sad, but unfortunately typical, portrait of elder abuse in 82-year-old Marjorie Jones, who one day received an anonymous call stating she had won a sweepstakes. According to the caller, Jones, who was legally blind and lived alone, would need to pay the taxes and fees on the winnings before the winnings from the sweepstakes could be released to her. After wiring the money to the anonymous caller, more stipulations and conditions became attached and Jones continued to send the money until she had depleted her entire savings, taking out a reverse mortgage on her home, and cashing in on a life insurance policy. Instead of reaching out to her family for help, an ashamed and embarrassed Jones killed herself.

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Elderly New Yorkers should carefully examine a nursing home’s finances before making their final decision, according to The New York Times. While full-blown insolvencies are rare, a poorly-run nursing home can offer a “bait-and-switch” type of scheme that lures the elderly in with its low costs, only to reduce services and increase costs in the years to come. According to the newspaper, elderly residents looking to join nursing homes or retirement communities with “joining” or entrance fees should be especially diligent about researching the finances of their facilities. These introductory fees, which can range between several hundred thousand to over a million, will not be returned if the nursing home fails to deliver services or increases its fees in the years, or decades down the road.

With little government regulation on the finances of these of retirement homes or retirement communities, potential residents must perform their own due diligence to ensure their future is safe and secure. This research can be performed by utilizing websites, such as Carf.org or MyLifeSite.net. However, these websites offering information about the finances of nursing homes usually charge a fee.

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A recent report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that individuals with mental health or behavioral problems are more likely to be denied access to higher-quality nursing homes throughout the country. The study relied on data from 3.7 million admissions in 15,600 facilities across the country and found that, while elderly Americans with any type of mental health problem faced more difficulty, those diagnosed with more severe illnesses faced even longer odds of admittance. According to healthcare analysts, this is likely a combination of concerns surrounding individuals with mental health problems and a lack of high-quality nursing homes in lower-income areas, which are more likely to have senior citizens with mental health challenges.

CMS assigns a “grade” to each nursing home based on the number of staff at each facility relative to the number of residents, quality benchmarks and the results of health inspections. CMS then assigns a set number of stars to the facility representing its quality, with a one-star facility providing the lowest quality care and a five-star facility providing the highest.

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