TABLE OF CONTENTS

1: Planning for Your Future
Kinds of long term care, advance directives

2: Nursing Home Services
Nursing services, medications, physician services, therapy, social services, religious services

3: Touring a Nursing Home
Includes a comprehensive checklist to use on a nursing home tour

4: Judging the Quality of a Nursing Home
State inspections, deficiency lists, the ombudsman program

5: How to Pay for a Nursing Home
Medicare, nursing home insurance, private pay, Medical Assistance, income and assets limits and rules, spouse's assets, how to appeal a Medical Assistance decision

6: Before You Sign a Contract, Read This
What to check for in a nursing home contract, financial agents

7: Your Rights Under the Law
Nursing home residents' legal rights

8: How to Complain When Quality Care is Lacking
Who to contact, nursing home ombudsmen, reporting abuse

9: Alternatives to a Nursing Home
In-home aide services, home health care, shared housing, group homes, assisted living, continuing care retirement communities, hospice care

10: Where to Get Help
Statewide and county resources

Nursing Homes:
What You Need to Know
Older man in chair Far too often, the decision about entering a nursing home is made during a crisis. Several Maryland agencies and legal organizations have compiled the information here to help you know what your choices are ahead of time. This information should help you evaluate nursing homes and alternatives, plan your finances and discuss your wishes with your family.

Download the information you need by clicking on the chapter titles to the left. Chapters 1 through 9 are in PDF format, so you will need a special program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to read them. Click for instructions on downloading a free copy of Acrobat Reader to your computer. Chapter 10 is in HTML and can be read even if you don't have Acrobat Reader.

You may order a free printed copy of Nursing Homes: What You Need to Know by calling the Maryland Attorney General's Office at (410) 576-6500.

In addition to the advice found here, visit the Maryland Health Care Commission's Web site at www.mhcc.state.md.us for further advice and comparative data about each nursing home operating in Maryland.

The federal government also provides data on patient care at every nursing home in the U.S. at http://www.medicare.gov/

NEED INFO ON ASSISTED LIVING? See Assisted Living: What You Need to Know at the Maryland Department of Aging's website at www.mdoa.state.md.us/Housing/ALGuide.pdf.

This information is brought to you by a cooperative effort of:

 

Maryland Attorney General home page
Consumer Protection Division Publications