Our View: Healing the nursing homes

It's one thing to say that throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it.

But when the money is owed, such as Nevada's Medicaid payments to nursing homes, then throwing money at the problem becomes a legitimate solution.

The financial solvency of nursing homes in Nevada is a crisis in the making. As reported in recent weeks by Associated Press writer Brendan Riley, 22 of 47 nursing homes in the state are in bankruptcy proceedings.

These are private businesses, of course, and not all their woes can be chalked up to governmental foot-dragging. Elderly care is a difficult field nationwide.

The difference from other businesses, however, is that nursing homes already are generally the option of last resort. If they fail, there is no place else for the elderly and infirm to go.

One company, Integrated Health Services Inc. of Maryland, owns 15 of the homes in Nevada that have filed for bankruptcy. If they close, 800 residents would need to find new homes.

While the issues are complex, nursing-home administrators are clear on one thing: Nevada isn't timely in making its payments.

IHS administrator Dallas Adams told a committee of Nevada legislators that the state may owe his company as much as $14 million at any one time. Some of the payments are so late, IHS may simply write off $5.5 million.

"Bluntly, Nevada is not paying its bills," said Tom Hathaway, who operates Washoe Care Center in Reno.

The nursing-home administrators also complain they don't get much cooperation from the state.

At this point, this is a dollars-and-cents issue being played out in courts, legislative hearing rooms and bureaucrats' offices. Nevada must get the money flowing so that the state, at least, is not an impediment to recovery of the industry.

The problem isn't going away. Instead, it will become grim if several nursing homes close, and state leaders are confronted, not by administrators, but by families and elderly residents themselves wondering where they should turn.