Christine Jordan Sexton
As the likelihood of additional veterans nursing homes increases, the House of Representatives wants to put into law a selection process that the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs must follow.
The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday takes up HB 7045. The bill follows controversy surrounding the selection of St. Lucie County for the development and construction of the state’s seventh nursing home.
Specifically, the bill requires the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs to contract for a study that ranks each county’s need for a nursing home based on certain criteria, including:
- current distance to an existing veterans’ nursing homes,
- number of veterans aged 65 or older living in the county,
- presence of existing veterans’ outpatient clinic,
- emergency room and physician capacity,
- number of nursing home beds per 1,000 elderly male residents, and
- poverty rate.
The bill would require the department to select the county with the highest ranking for any new nursing home authorized through 2020, subject to approval of the governor and Cabinet. If the highest-ranked county cannot accommodate a new nursing home the department must select the next highest-ranked county.
The House has earmarked $50,000 in its budget to pay for the rankings. The bill makes clear that the study’s findings don’t apply to the 2014 decision to build the newest nursing home in St. Lucie County.
There now is a two-step process for nursing home selection: ranking based on need and a follow-up ranking by a site selection committee appointed by the secretary of the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
St. Lucie County was ranked No. 7 based on need but the Selection Committee appointed by the department secretary ranked it No. 1. A similar situation occurred in 2004 when the Lake/Marion/Sumter area was ranked as the area most in need but the Site Selection Committee picked St. Johns County as the new site for a new nursing home.
There are six veterans’ nursing homes in the state. Florida is near the top of the list of states with “great need” for veterans nursing homes as determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Veterans’ nursing homes are paid for mostly by federal funding, with 65 percent of the costs being picked up by federal money.
