Without You, The Suruiuors' Stories
Might Neuer Get Told
She comes from
Przemysl, Poland. She
is among the 10% of
Polish Jews who
survived Nazi
Occupation. Now she
is in her 80's. Her
family's graves are
overgrown and
crumbling. Her
experiences haVe gone
untold. Remembrance
and Reconciliation,
Inc., an Ann Arbor
non-profit, is working
to restore Przemysl's
Jewish cemetery and
to publish the stories
of survivors like her—
in Poland, where they
most need to be heard.
Shrin
At Danto
Nursing home cuts Medicare beds
in reimbursement dispute.
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
F
Help us fight Anti-Semitism in Poland.
Help us preserve the Memory.
Please send your tax-deductible contribution to:
and reconciliation, Inc.
R emembrance
1835 Cambridge Road o Ann Arbor, MI 48104
For more information, call: (7 34) 665-5734
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Quality instalkaion
3/19
1999 40.
16 Detroit Jewish News
N
w
acing a sharp cut in federal
insurance payments, a
Jewish nursing home on the
West Bloomfield Jewish
Community Campus has cut, from 60
to 20, the number of Medicare
patients it will house.
The Toledo-based company that
runs the Marvin and Betty Danto
Family Health Care Center, said it took
the step because the average federal
reimbursement rate of $208 a day does
not cover the costs of housing and
medical care. It said it had been getting
an average of $378 a day until new
Federal rules took effect in January.
It's not yet clear whether the closing
beds would affect elderly Jews looking
for nursing home care. The other
Jewish nursing option in the area is
the 220-bed Menorah House in
Southfield.
"Under this new system, each
building gets a per diem based on the
1995 cost of care," said Larry Lester,
regional manager of Health Care &
Retirement Corporation-Manorcare in
Toledo. Since Danto didn't exist in
1995, the rates are based on those
charged at the former Prentis Manor
on Lahser Road in Southfield, which
moved patients to the 161-bed West
Bloomfield facility. Medicare had been
paying the full cost of caring for a
patient but has changed its rules to
cope with a mounting multi-billion-
dollar anticipated debt.
HCR has asked the Federal Health
Care Finance Administration to raise
the rate for Danto. Mark Davidoff,
chief operating officer of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit,
- -
said Federation is assisting,so--
HCR has the right ;nrormation about
1995 r ases --aarentis Manor, and "to
make the case to the federal govern-
ment that this is important to the
Jewish community."
Lonny Goldsmith can be reached at
(248) 354-6060 ext 263, or by e-mail
at: lgoldsnzith@thejewisbnews.com
The Medicare beds were decertified
on Jan. 1 of this year, although the
plan to not accept new Medicare resi-
dents began a couple of months earlier.
"We made a conscious decision not
to admit Medicare residents in those
beds even though we were still certi-
fied," said Linda Funds, the Danto
administrator. "We would accept people
if they were short term; no one was left
Only 20 beds
for Medicare
patients.
out in the cold. We wouldn't have done
all 40 at once if that were the case."
The United Jewish Foundation
Metropolitan Detroit leased the land to
HCR, and HCR has the right to use it c
for at least 30 years, Davidoff said.
"They agreed to run it for the ben-
efit of the Jewish community," he said.
Losing 40 Medicare beds is a concern
"because it affects people's entry into
Danto," he noted.
This news comes on the heels of a
state inspection in December that
found 13 violations at the facility,
seven of them dealing with quality of c--)
care. Eleven of the 13 were described
as isolated incidents rather than recur-
ring problems, and all 13 have been
corrected, Funds said.
The facility got below av er-5-
reports from state ita,i ) ections in
January_ar..c/ October of 1997. And a
ivaie survey late last year rated
Danto third worst in Oakland County -/
in terms of family satisfaction:
Funds said 115 beds are currently
occupied in the four units at the facili-
ty: long-term, short-term, Medicare
and Alzheimer's. She noted that fewer
patients mean lower operating costs
but declined to discuss the overall
finances of the nursing home. Li