Michigan leaders, legislators vow to improve nursing homes after Bridge report

A Bridge investigation found everyday misery, pain, accidents and death in many nursing homes
At least three Michigan lawmakers or candidates for office have vowed to make changes
Among the plans: Two bills that would give the state more power to go after poor performing nursing home operators.

Two gubernatorial candidates vow to improve conditions at Michigan nursing homes, while another lawmaker plans legislation to increase enforcement of homes with persistent problems, following a Bridge Michigan investigation this week.

Still another said he will step up his fight for better pay for those who work on the front lines of care.

Their actions followed a Bridge series published this week about poor care, low staffing and neglect and abuse inside Michigan’s nursing homes. The series — guided by years of inspection reports that lay out neglect, abuse, misery, loneliness, accidents and, in some cases, death — found that Michigan is doing little to significantly improve care, while other states are changing laws and policies to better protect their residents.

“I’m hopeful, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been hopeful,” said Alison Hirschel, director of the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative and a longtime advocate for improved nursing home care.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, a White Lake Republican who also chairs the Michigan GOP, said he has directed his staff to draft bills based on actions in New Jersey, a state that has suspended Medicaid payments to nursing homes suspected of chronic neglect and abuse, and Connecticut, where lawmakers have given the state more power to improve care.

Tweet: This is an abomination.
@GovWhitmer
the first job of state government is protect the most vulnerable.

As AG, I investigated and prosecuted bad actors in the nursing home world. I then pushed the Legislature into requiring criminal background checks.

As Governor, I will do what I did as AG & homicide prosecutor - protect the most vulnerable among us. — Mike Cox, a former Republican Attorney General, called Bridge’s findings about nursing home care “an abomination.”

GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox, the state’s former attorney general, called the conditions uncovered by Bridge “an abomination.”

Another Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tom Leonard, said Bridge’s report “should shame Lansing into action.”

Related:

Leonard, a former speaker of the state House, vowed to establish an Elder Abuse Task Force inside Michigan State Police, a move he said would allow more prosecution of staffers that neglect or abuse residents.

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office operates an Elder Abuse Task Force, but Leonard said it would work closely with state police investigators who can be more nimble and investigate allegations more quickly.

Leonard said he is inspired by the work of a similar task force — staffed by investigators, social workers and a gerontologist — in Genesee County, when he was prosecutor there.

POST: This headline should shame Lansing into action.
When I was in the Legislature, the first bill I introduced increased penalties for those who prey on our elders. As a prosecutor in Genesee County, we created an Elder Abuse Task Force.
As Governor, I will put a statewide Elder Abuse Task Force inside the Michigan State Police. — Two gubernatorial candidates — former Attorney General Mike Cox and former Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard, both Republicans — and the head of the Michigan Republican party — Sen. Jim Runestad of White Lake — have all vowed to fight poor quality care in Michigan’s nursing homes.

“What we found was that a lot of these cases that were falling through the cracks as … neglect — they’re actually criminal abuse,” he said.

Whether nursing home operators could be held criminally responsible is unclear, but the publicity surrounding a criminal wrongdoing case could shame them into better care.

What’s more, it would reveal names of staff and the allegations against them — specifics now scrubbed from public documents. That, in turn, would alert other nursing homes that otherwise might hire them.

“Is it the silver bullet? No, but I do believe it would improve care,” Leonard said.

On the social media platform X, Cox blamed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying that “the first job of state government is (to) protect the most vulnerable.”

Speaking to Bridge, Cox laid out a four-point plan to tackle poor care.

Boost agency accountability

“We don’t need more commissions or more study groups,” Cox said. “Make their jobs depend on it,” he said of leadership of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which helps set policies for how nursing homes are reimbursed, and the state’s Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Agency, which inspects nursing homes and is charged with licensing health workers.

More tightly tie nursing home payments to quality

Cox said quality of care should play a larger role in how Michigan’s nursing homes are reimbursed by Medicaid. He acknowledged that it would take expert insight to determine which metrics or markers could be used.

Allow cameras in nursing homes

In contrast to Whitmer, who failed to sign legislation that would have allowed that, Cox said he would sign such bills into law. (Whitmer’s office previously did not respond to Bridge requests for comment about why she didn’t sign the bill.)

Forge state and community college partnerships to train more workers

Cox said Michigan’s Licensing and Regulatory Affairs department and the state’s community colleges should work together to develop more training for certified nurse aids as a way to build up the state’s supply of frontline workers. Within the training, the state could create a certificate program for more highly-skilled CNAs who could serve as mentors for new CNAs, he said.

Cox said boosting the state’s unusually low staffing requirements isn’t a solution.

He agreed with Melissa Samuel, president and CEO of the industry group, Health Care Association of Michigan. Samuel told Bridge that required ratios are “feel-good” measures that are arbitrary. Importantly, they don’t reflect the differing levels of care needed for residents, she said.

Others have argued that persistently low pay on the front lines at nursing homes leads to dangerously understaffed shifts, frustration and high turnover — a recipe for neglect and abuse.

Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, a cosponsor in a Democrat-led set of bills aimed at protecting vulnerable adults, said better pay and a career ladder for thousands of front line workers is key to lasting change.

He agrees in general with “transparency and accountability measures,” he said, but those fixes “nibble around the edges” of a lasting solution.

“We need a solution to the main problem, which is staffing,” he said.

Whitmer has not responded to numerous requests for comment.