Study to review infrastructure near nursing homes

OKLAHOMA CITY – As Oklahoma's senior population continues to grow, a Tulsa legislator wants the state to consider making it easier for nursing home residents to get around.

State Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, requested a study on construction standards in new nursing homes and other senior housing. The request states Goodwin's goal: "Look at current construction standards and how they aid or impede access and mobility of seniors and access of emergency personnel services."

The request looks specifically at curbs and sidewalks, infrastructure that affects pedestrian travel.

Nico Gomez is the executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Health Care Providers, a trade group for nursing home and long-term care facilities operators. He said that he and his organization support any policy that would increase seniors' mobility, and improving the standards would help anyone with limited mobility. However, he did raise a concern: Improving construction is expensive.

"For us, we just want to make sure that if that burden is going to be on the nursing facility, there has to be some accommodation for funding for that," he said. "There's just not enough margin in the reimbursement."

About three-fourths of Oklahomans in nursing homes use Medicaid to pay for their stay, and the state's reimbursement rate is about half of the maximum the country allows. States get a federal match for whatever they put into Medicaid, but Oklahoma has continued to make cuts to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which administers the program. To cut costs, the agency has three options: decrease administrative overhead, decrease the number of patients covered or decrease service rates for providers. Oklahoma tends to choose the third option. Like all other agencies, the budget has been reduced drastically since 2009. And like other medical providers, long-term care facilities have seen their reimbursement rates cut.

Gomez proposed looking into grants that the Oklahoma Department of Transportation can administer for projects that aren't directly related to roads and other sources of outside help.

"We want to be cautious that we don’t create an unfunded mandate," he said.

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