An Iowa woman’s story will be heard by the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C. today (Wednesday). Patricia Blank of Shell Rock will recount the story of her mother’s death from abuse and neglect at a nursing home. With the goal of protecting other Americans from such abuse, the story of how Virginia Olthoff was allegedly left in severe pain and may not have received water for days before her death will be told. The nursing home where Olthoff died, however, had received the highest ranking possible for quality of resident care, even though it had been fined for physical and verbal abuse just one year before Olthoff died. “How a place with the highest possible rating could yield such a tragic incident is just outrageous,” says Iowa Senator, Chuck Grassley. “Things need to change, both for the standards at care facilities and for how Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rate them. Grassley adds that families should be able to rely on the CMS rankings, but that is clearly not the case right now. Blank will provide the insight into what needs to be done while CMS will update the committee on the progress being made to help American families.
