This past Sunday night, the House passed a health care reform bill that will, for the first time, apply some measure of governmenetal control to the health care insurance industry.

Despite all the noise, the bill was generally supported by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the American Geriatric Society.  The hope is that when more individuals have coverage, levels of reimbursement will improve for providers of health care.

A huge problems in nursing homes is the lack of physician involvement. Often the physicians who are the “Medical Directors” in nursing homes have similar responsibilities at multiple other facilities as well.  As a result, have very little time to spend with the people that they are supposed to be looking after.

We hope that the new law will help increase the level of compensation to doctors who treat seniors in long-term care. We need to encourage physician participation and oversight of the care in nursing homes.