seniors

In the face of overwhelming demand, a Medi-Cal program providing assisted living for low-income patients is expanding, but slowly. In the meantime, family caretakers struggle with jobs, child care and other responsibilities as they wait.

After lawmakers scaled back a California nursing homes licensing bill, critics said it would let the worst operators thrive, but other advocates insisted it was still a step in the right direction.

People with costly medical needs who make more than the income limit to qualify for free Medi-Cal may still access the program by paying a share of cost, but it’s often unaffordable. Advocates are requesting funding in this year’s budget to help those people qualify.

About 11,500 long-term care center workers are now sick with COVID. “It's been like one coworker after another, after another, everyone getting sick,” one nursing assistant said.

In a parallel problem to patient ‘dumping,’ many poor nursing home residents find themselves stuck inside facilities and unable to return home.

A CalMatters investigation unpacks the factors that result in thousands staying in California nursing homes against their will.

A Fresno nursing home was fined more than $900,000 in 2018 for poor patient care, but consumers have been hard-pressed to find any public record of the massive penalty or many other big fines.

California nursing homes have filed more than 400 lawsuits since 2016 to appeal state citations and fines alleging poor patient care. Regulators downgraded nearly a third of sanctions involving a death. Advocates say the appeals system favors nursing homes.

Around 1,000 Californians are still newly infected every day, hospitalizations have hit a new low, people of color remain at high risk and almost half of eligible people aren’t fully vaccinated.

The pandemic proved the value of programs that help seniors stay in their homes and out of long-term care facilities. The Legislature should expand them.