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Ombudsman urges discharge notification expansion; residents report pharmacy fees and low personal-needs allowance
Summary
The Kansas long-term care ombudsman urged requiring notice for facility-initiated involuntary discharges across all adult care home types, described complaints volume and case outcomes, and raised resident concerns about pharmacy surcharges and a low personal-needs allowance tied to Medicaid.
Haley Ordoyne, Kansas State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, told the committee her office reviews complaints and advocates for nursing home and adult care residents and recommended expanding the state’s notification rules so the ombudsman is notified of facility-initiated involuntary discharges for all adult care home types, not only federally-certified nursing facilities.
Ordoyne said her office made roughly 2,300 facility visits in the latest reporting year and handled a variety of complaints—resident rights, abuse/neglect reports, involuntary discharges, care shortcomings, and facility environment issues. She described how some complaints start as low-level concerns but grow into larger investigations and that when residents die before a complaint is completed, the case closes and may appear as “not resolved” even though it was not addressed to the resident’s preference.
Ordoyne asked the Legislature to require that all adult care homes notify the ombudsman about facility-initiated involuntary discharges. She said doing so would allow the ombudsman to intervene more often and to work with residents and facilities to pursue options that keep residents in place where appropriate.
Ordoyne also said residents report being charged monthly pharmacy ‘service’ fees—ranging from about $100 to $300—if they use a pharmacy not contracted by the facility. She said residents and families view these charges as penalties that limit consumer pharmacy choice. The ombudsman asked for a statutory or regulatory review of that practice.
On benefits, Ordoyne recommended increasing the Medicaid personal-needs allowance (PNA) for nursing-home residents. She said Kansas’ current PNA is low (about $62 per month) and that a national advocacy group’s data show a national average near $73; she urged raising Kansas’ allowance and tying it to a cost-of-living adjustment.
Ending: Ordoyne asked the committee to consider requiring universal discharge notification to the ombudsman, to review pharmacy fee practices that restrict consumer choice, and to consider increasing and indexing the personal-needs allowance for Medicaid nursing-home residents.
