New arrangements to care for the elderly will be a contest between for-profit and charity models of service delivery.
An article from the Wall Street Journal (Lucette Lagnado) surveys an experiment in Vermont to provide government-funded senior care at home (link via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The article presents a mosaic of for-profit and nonprofit approaches, characteristic of the nursing care industry.
Promoting the idea of home health care is the Champlain Valley Area Agency on Aging (EIN 22-2474636 Form 990), which is helping seniors to get their own apartments and arranging for paid care by people close to them (in the profile, a man is cared for by his ex-wife). This takes people out of nursing homes, such as the one jointly run by a for profit company and a subsidiary of Fletcher Allen Health Care (EIN 03-0219309 Form 990), a hospital in Burlington.
Yet another aspect of the change is demonstrated by Burlington Project Independence (EIN 03-0270346 Form 990) and adult day care center. I'm not sure whether the handwritten Form 990 of this agency gives me comfort or concern.
Back in May, we discussed attempts by for-profit companies to break the lock that nonprofit agencies have on home health care in Vermont ("Vermont Nonprofit Home Health Agencies Fight For-Profit Encroachment"). Now we see how much is at stake in this battle, since home health appears to be the wave of the future. And since the nonprofit association in Vermont has died ("Vermont Nonprofit Association Folds", June 8), there seems little doubt that the for-profit model will eventually be allowed in.
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