Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Letter to Gov. McCrory Re People Who Live and Work in Nursing Homes

I wrote our Governor Pat McCrory a letter on March 18, 2014. North Carolinians can't just sit around and let our already weak safety net disintegrate. People who are indigent and live in nursing homes can rarely speak for themselves. Nursing assistants and other workers need to be paid a wage they can live on. They have little voice also. The two issues are one. It will take a leader like Gov. McCrory to speak for all these people and remedy this situation. The letter:

March 18, 2014


The Honorable Pat McCrory
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301

Dear Governor McCrory:

Thank you for your service to the citizens of North Carolina. You have a tremendous responsibility and work in a challenging political and economic environment, to say the least. I have met you in person only twice, most recently at the grand opening of Searstone in Cary. Lutheran Services Carolinas has a small but important connection with Searstone, coordinating their sizeable community stewardship fund to serve indigent seniors in Wake County.

Many people approach you with their hand out, and I am no exception today. But my hand is out only on behalf of the people we serve, primarily one thousand mostly indigent seniors across our state. On January 1, 2014, the N.C. Medicaid rate for our citizens living in nursing homes was cut by 3%. Although nursing homes had not had a Medicaid rate increase since 2008, I felt we were being good citizens by understanding the state’s and nation’s great recession and its aftermath and making do with our meager reimbursement. Those rates are now the lowest in the entire southeast United States!

Now to get a 3% cut is disastrous to our care and services. This can only negatively affect quality and Medicaid accessibility for indigent seniors across North Carolina. I am at the point of pleading, so I plead that you at least restore the 3% that has been cut. As I write this, I lament a system so broken that I am forced to beg for substandard reimbursement. We need adequate reimbursement to care for our most vulnerable citizens, but the return of this latest 3% would at least allow us to limp forward.

Any increase we receive goes almost entirely to pay the wages of the people who actually care for those we serve. Nursing assistants and all staff deserve adequate pay to afford to live and for us to stay reasonably competitive.

Thank you for listening. I am available at your convenience to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

Ted W. Goins, Jr.
President, Lutheran Services Carolinas


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