Legal News;
Law Protects Patients On Medicaid From Eviction

Under the Nursing Home Resident Protection Act, current Medicaid patients can not be evicted or transferred from nursing homes, even if the institutions stopped participating in the federal health program for the poor and disabled. Previously, the patients could be evicted with 30 days' notice.

The law does not require nursing homes to admit Medicaid patients or to participate in the program. But homes that don't participate in Medicaid must clearly inform incoming residents that they face possible eviction or transfer if they end up relying on the program.

Last April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Vencor, Inc., Louisville, Ky., was evicting Medicaid residents from 13 homes in nine states. Although Vencor quickly dropped its plan, members of Congress - citing the Journal's story and an eviction incident in Tampa, Fla. - introduced the legislation.

Two-thirds of the nation's nursing home residents depend on Medicaid to pay for their care, the White House said. About half of all residents who begin by paying for their care with their own money and insurance turn to Medicaid within three to five years. Nursing homes cost an average of $40,000 a year.

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