Governor Bredesen gave his State of the State address last night . He did not say that he had any desire to limit the right to trial by jury for any citizen against any defendant in any industry.
This comment scares the nursing homes: "My job is to open more doors to alternatives here in Tennessee. If you want to stay in your home, if it makes sense to do so, this is the year we’re going to start making it easier." Tennessee spends about $1B per year of its Medicaid money on nursing home care; even a 10% shift will have an impact on the cash flow on the facilities.
The facilities always argue that they lose money on Medicaid patients. Not true. It is true that Medicaid payments may not always cover the average cost of keeping a patient in a nursing home. The government’s goal, however, is for the payments to cover the marginal costs associated with keeping the Medicaid patients in the facilities and the payments usually do so.