BY JIM HALL
MediCorp Health System officials will learn soon if they've solved the problems at Carriage Hill nursing home and if their facility will again be eligible for government payments.
Nicole Threatt, administrator at the Spotsylvania County facility, notified the state Health Department Monday that Carriage Hill is ready for re-inspection.
Officials hope that this new inspection will lead to the home's return to the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs.
Employees of the Health Department's Division of Long Term Care will do the unannounced inspection. Connie Kane, division director, could not be reached for comment.
"We have no guarantee of the turnaround time of that survey, although we understand it could be within three weeks," said Kathleen Allenbaugh, MediCorp spokeswoman.
Carriage Hill Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center was banished from the Medicare/Medicaid programs in June after a series of unsatisfactory inspections. Surveyors from the state Health Department found a host of problems, from unsafe conditions to poor record-keeping. A resident died in the home in May when he strangled in his nurse-call cord.
When state surveyors return to the home, they will look at every aspect of Carriage Hill's operation, as if they were inspecting a new facility.
"All of the clinical, administrative and physical plant areas are surveyed," Allenbaugh said. "All of our processes and all of our systems."
Carriage Hill is located on State Route 3 near Five-Mile Fork. About 105 people live there, a majority of whom receive reimbursements from either the Medicaid or Medicare programs. No new Medicare or Medicaid patients have entered the home since June.
MediCorp officials decided to keep Carriage Hill open after losing the government funding. Residents were told they could stay if they wanted to and would not have to pay the costs covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Earlier this month, a MediCorp official estimated that the separation has cost the company about $5 million.
Statewide, the termination of a long-term care facility from the Medicare/Medicaid programs occurs about once a year.
Most of these facilities are reinstated after about two months, a state official said.
Allenbaugh said the decision to keep Carriage Hill open while it made changes was a factor in its absence of five months.
"We made it clear from the beginning that we wanted to put long-term solutions in place," she added. "We were not interested in Band-Aid fixes just to hurry up the recertification."
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433