Meadowlark Hills

Medicare Steps Up: Meadowlark joins forces with Medicare

Fri Nov 20, 01:56 AM

Meadowlark joins forces with Medicare to provide extended services.

Meadowlark Hills has recently brought a new service into the community, a strategy that is vital to Meadowlark’s future.

The initiative refers to services for people who are qualified to receive Medicare Part A services. When a person age 65 and older has an injury or illness and has at least a three-day hospital stay (a government requirement), that person may be eligible to receive their entitlement benefits for his or her health care recovery and rehabilitation services for up to 100 days in a skilled nursing community, such as Meadowlark’s Lyle House.

Lyle House opened in February of 2009 and has been near or at full occupancy, which has prompted to find a larger transition services house. Bramlage and Wroten households will serve that purpose, and Lyle House will return to a traditional healthcare house, like Sloan and Honstead. Bramlage and Wroten offers 40 private rooms, as opposed to the 13 guests Lyle could serve.

Willie Novotny, Executive Leader of Meadowlark Hills, said it’s imperative to have the transitional services offered in one place. “This is necessary because it allows us to more adequately staff and train for the special needs these customers have,” Novotny said. “In this economy, it’s also becoming even more imperative for businesses to keep re-inventing themselves, so that they are able to respond to the needs they see being requested from their customers. Some of these services are provided in nursing homes but people still do not want to go to there – they want something else. They want to recover in a home-like atmosphere, where everyone shares a common goal – to be able to go back to their ‘real’ home.”
Novotny continued.

“It is our core mission to continue to meet community needs and stay viable as a business,” Novotny said. “Everyone is aware of what has been going on with the economy. Currently, we are dependent on money received from investments and charitable donations in order to continue to serve those without resources. Neither of those is currently funding the need, so we have to continue to find creative ways to expand profitable services to make up the difference.”

Currently, about 30 percent of Meadowlark’s healthcare residents receive Medicaid (different from Medicare) as their payor source. This service is a primary obligation of Meadowlark Hills as a part of its mission as a charitable organization. However, the government reimbursement for services is about $50 to $75 a day less than what it costs to provide care. Meadowlark tracks the total losses it has in providing these services, calling them “charitable services.” The services total about $750K a year.
Novotny said the initiative will have the ability to meet the needs of service at Meadowlark Hills, the surrounding areas and could make possible another healthcare building and renovation project that would result in further privatization of skilled nursing accommodations.