HD12 - Projecting the Need for Nursing Home Beds in Relation to Alternative Community Based Services

  • Published: 1983
  • Author: Commissioner of Health
  • Enabling Authority: House Bill 879 (Regular Session, 1982)

Executive Summary:
In accordance with 1982 House Bill 879, the Department of Health has completed its study of methods for projecting the need for nursing home beds in relation to alternative community based services. The Department has reviewed the current nursing home bed need methodology and has determined that the methodology as presented to the 1982 General Assembly in House Document No. 18, which assumes that community based services will be available, is appropriate; application of the methodology indicates that an expansion of nursing home bed capacity may be warranted in several regions by 1987.

The Department of Health has also considered appropriate policy positions concerning community based services and reiterates its strong support for the following policy on the utilization of nursing homes in relation to alternatives, as recommended in 1982 House Document No. 18:

A full range of long term care services, both community based and institutional, should be available to the citizens of the Commonwealth with long term care needs. The services should be organized and available in a manner that promotes the highest quality of needed care in the setting with the least public cost.

The Department of Health further recommends that the preceding policy be implemented through the following actions:

1. The General Assembly should not extend beyond June 30, 1983, the current moratorium on new issuances of certificates of public need for nursing home beds.

2. State Medical Facilities Plans should continue to use a methodology for projecting nursing home bed need that assumes that appropriate community based services will be available; the methodology should be reviewed regularly and revised as necessary to assure ongoing consistency with the preceding policy or to accommodate relevant recommendations of the Long Term Care Council.

3. The Department of Health should actively support those recommendations of the Long Term Care Council that are consistent with the preceding policy concerning alternatives to nursing home care. As resources permit, it should provide pertinent data and technical services to the Council's staff.