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Show lJj6 WESTERN AMERICANA HEW Forcing Closure of Nursing Homes byDeanAlsup d sonable Basis." It applied to both skilled nursing homes and intermediate care facilities. Under HEWs new reimbursement plan, nursing homes will be repaid by the state of Utah for the exact Cost-Realte- Several Utah nursing homes may soon face closure because of a new federal cost reimbursement program making it illegal for nursing homes to make a profit from Medi-cad- e The new patients. reimbursement program, set forth July 1, by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) is called Reimbursement on a Rea amount spent on elderly the elderly in Utah nursing Home Assn., says that be- permitted to function like one; homes are cared for under the cause the market is declining that means making a profit." Medicade program and will be affected by the new regulation. Under the new system, nursing home expenditures, however large or small they might be, will be matched exactly by government money. The federal govpatients. No Profit or No Business will ernment subsequently reimburse the state for that Dennis McFall, executive amount. About 70 percent of all director of the Utah Nursing supplement to the National Enterprise for private paying nursing home patients, nursing homes across the country, and in Utah, face two alternatives: either run a operation or go out of business. "What it amounts to, McFall said, is that many homes will be forced out of business by the federal gov- HEW, in recent years, has been placing more stringent life and safety regulations on nursing homes, he said. And in order to structurally modify homes to meet current specifications, nursing home operators have had to boost rates of private paying patients. ernment. Nursing homes are "They (the federal gova business and should be ernment) cause our prices to go up by forcing us to meet all the current requirements for life and safety and then they force old people to live on Medicade because they cant afford to keep themselves privately. After almost everyone is dependent on the Medicade prograftj they tell us we can no loijger make a from Medicade profit non-prof- it . . patients." Nationalized Nursing Care Derk Anjewierden, administrator of Zions Mt. View Inc., Salt Lake City, believes nationalized nursing home care is the long range plan of the federal government. He disapprovingly points to Sen. Frank Moss, as a of the new backer" 'principal reimbursement system. I'm opposed to the way D-Uta- Commission Balks at Insurance Rates Malpractice insurance rates for Utah doctors are reasonable. But those charged to hospitals are excessive. Those were conclusions drawn by the Utah Insurance Commission and announced at its public hearing on malpractice insurance rates held July In 1975 it rose to $11,000, and in 1976 it rose to $46,000" he told Insurance Commis- sioner C. N. Ottosen. Representative Mary Johnson of Salt Lake said that Delta Hospital's premium rose from $4,000 in 1975 to $23,000 in 1976. 15. Laced throughout the hearing were horror stories from Utah hospitals that illustrated their financial plight. For instance, Gary Lang of Wasatch County Hospital said his malpractice insurance premium in 1974 was $3,000. Premiums rose from $4000 to Robert Finger presented the $23,000 in one year at Delta Commission's study on said Rep . Mary practice insurance rates. Johnson. mal-llospit- al City to Pocket $2 Million Salt Lake City will host 18 conventions in the next 45 days, with an estimated impact on the community of nearly $2,000,000. Nearly 11,000 delegates to national, regional and statewide conventions will converge on the capitol city from now through the end of August in numbers ranging from 150 for the Utah Association to over 3,000 for the American Contract Bridge Leagues Summer Nationals in the Salt Palace. If those delegates spend what the national average and statisticians at the Salt Lake Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau say they will. Salt Lake Opto-metric- li al hotelsmotels, resorts, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses catering to the traveling public should an additional expect $2,000,000 in the till (Nat. Avg. spent is $179.43 per stay x 10,645 delegates equalling City $1,910,032). According to the national figures, delegates will spend 38 percent of their convention dollars on lodging, 16 percent on hotel restaurants, 16 percent on other restaurants, 6 percent for beverages, 10 percent in retail stores, 3 percent for local transportation, 6 percent for entertainment and the reaminder on other" items. According to an Insur- ance Commission study, summarized at the hearing, reasonable hospital insurance premiums should be an average of $300 per accupied bed for $100,000 of coverage, or $400 per occupied bed for Continued on Page 4b h, Moss is doing things," he said. Any form of business must make a profit and when the government removes profit, they remove the incentive of the free enterprise system. I believe the government plans to take over the entire nursing home business," he declared. Of Utahs 118 private nursing homes, (there arc no state or federally operated homes specializing in the care of the states elderly) 71 are intermediate care facilities. of these intermediate homes face closure in March of 1977 unless they can Continued on page 2b Thirty-fiv- e Outcome of Elections Holds Economists, Investors in Suspense by Mary McMillan Gaber As national elections draw near, rumors among investors have begun to fly hard and After the election we fast. will have runaway inflation. The current economic recovery is based on artificially low interest rates that will rise again after November," some say. Yet, pressed for proof, gossiping investors shrug and Just a hunch," they wink, say. Greg Johnson of Granite Financial Group says inflation is the big question mark now. The election will determine the government policy about spending, and will have a residual effect on taxes," So investors Johnson says, have developed a wait and see attitude. Besides the election, other factors have made in vestors leery, Johnson continues. "The current drought in Europe and in our own corn belt could have a disastrous effect on food prices and cause increased inflation," he adds. Loans for hotelsmotels and recreation-relate- d con- struction, he has notices, are particularly hard to find now. Any business dependent on transportation and gas prices or discretionary income is having trouble getting loans," he said. Investors arc the greatest gossip mongers in the world, Everyone is nervous about says an economist of a leading said John financial publication, and they inflation," Schumann. are apt to overreact to everything. Yet investment deci- the Federal Reserve to keep sions are based on those interest rates artificially low," rumors. he says. And yet rumors "There is actually no way abound to that effect in into prove the present adminisvestment circles. tration is putting pressure on Continued on Page 5b ' U |