Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 3

LOKAMMRT. FRIDAY. SEPTEMHER II. 1981 PAGE 3 Typical Nursing Care Not Paid By Medicare (Second in a series) BY GARY GERARD Staff Writer Older adults trying to cope with nursing home costs can turn to Medicaid if they are financially eligible. But those lacking that eligibility must pay for the care on their own.

And neither Medicare nor private health insurance programs cover what is generally thought of as nursing home care. Eligibility for Medicare is not stringent. The applicant need only be disabled or over age 65, and must have paid FICA taxes for a period of ten years. There are no needs tests or financial restrictions required of Medicare applicants. John Westerhold, assistant district manager of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services at Kokomo, said Medicare is a federally funded health insurance program which is divided into two parts hospital insurance (part A), and medical insurance (part B). Medicare does not pay the entire cost of all covered services. The patient pays for initial dollar amounts which Medicare does not pay (deductiblesj and a share of expenses above the deductible (co- payments. Part A will help pay for hospitalization in a semiprivate room with general nursing and miscellaneous hospital services and supplies. That includes meals special care units, drugs, lab diagnostic X- rays, medical supplies, operating and recovery room, anesthesia and rehabilitation services.

Also under part Medicare will pay the first 20 days in a skilled nursing facility after at least a three-day stay in the hospital. An additional $25.50 per day for 80 more days can also be collected. A skilled nursing facility is one which furnishes skilled nursing and rehabilitation services. It may be part of a hospital or a separate facility. Westerhold said Medicare benefits are payable only if the facility is certified by Medicare, but that most nursing homes are not skilled nursing facilities, and many skilled nursing facilities are not certified.

He also said Medicare benefits for skilled nursing care is becoming more difficult to get because federal budget restraints have a closer scrutiny of applicants. He added that most older adults don't need skilled nursing home care alter a stay in a hospital. Usually they require or custodial care, which is not covered by Medicare or private insurance. The major expenditures of Medicare are not for skilled nursing care, but for hospital care, Westerhold said. Part helps pay physician's services, inpatient and outpatient medical services and supplies, ambulance fees, home health care and outpatient treatment.

Private health insurance is also available for hospital and medical costs, but there are virtually no private insurance programs, for nursing home care. Charlie Miller, corporate spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, said his agency has policies which will supplement Medicare, but that the supplement only applies to medically necessary skilled nursing home care. He added that it would be very difficult to find any insurance company that would write a policy for intermediate or custodial care because in most cases it is long term and extremely costly. "The costs involved in Kentucky Won't Get Clarksville, Indiana Attorney General Says custodial or intermediate nursing home care are high. When Medicare payments drop off (after 20 days, or 80 days if approved), Blue Cross Blue Shjeld also runs out," he said.

Harry Latham, general counsel for the Indiana Health Care Association, said 60 to 65 percent, of nursing home occupants are on Medicaid. He echoed Miller's remarks that it is very difficult to get any Kind of insurance for custodial or intermediate nursing home care. "You could probably get an insurance company to write a policy for nursing home care, but the cost would be horrendous," he said, "That's why very few people participate in that type of insurance." Medicare and private insurance will not pay'for most nursing home care. The different types and costs of care provided by nursing homes is the topic of part three of the series. NEW ALBANY, Ind.

(DPI) Indiana Attorney General Linley E. Pearson is confident his state can prove Kentucky has wrongly cl-aimed ownership of an area of the Ohio River up to one-fifth of a mile wide. Kentucky historically has claimed the Bluegrass state extends to the north edge of the Ohio River separating the state from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Pearson told about 12 people attending Thursday night's public hearing on the Indiana-Kentucky border dispute that he was confident Indiana's case would succeed before a special federal mediator. "We just don't feel there will be a said Pearson, referring to nearby Clarksville, Ind.

Robert Van Pelt of Nebraska, a court-' appointed special master named to resolve the border dispute, plans to open a series of hearings Oct. 20 in Cincinnati to determine location of the Ohio's 1792 low-water mark. At stake in the dispute is the right to regulate competing riverfront developments, water quality standards and to collect fees from fishermen and boaters. Pearson said evidence from the Army of Engineers used by Indiana to prove its case was more accurate than Kentucky's evidence based on 19th century land-office surveys and more recent aerial surveys. "The aerial photos were made after the first series of dams were constructed and are not as accurate as the Corps of Engineers Pearson said.

The public hearing was the latest in a series planned by Pearson to outline Indiana's position in the border dispute Hearings were held earlier this week in Evansvilte and Cannelton and are planned Tuesday in Lawrenceburg and Wednesday in Madison. Deadline Nears For Patients INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) Gov. Robert D. Orr said he is "keeping his fingers crossed" that all residents from St. Ann's Home in Hammond will be relocated by tonight's deadline.

Orr sent William DuBois and Lewis Gregory, two staff members, to Tri-City Mental Health Center, East Chicago, to aid in the relocation process. As of Thursday night, they reported 25 of the elderly persons, some of whom have been patients in mental hospitals, decided to settle at Lee Alan Bryant Health Care Facility, Rockville. Another 22 were being relocated in family care homes and eight more found other accommodations, but 27 still remained to be placed. The original group had included 92 persons left homeless when the St. Ann's Home closed but families took care of some of these.

At one point, there was some consideration given by the Tri-City Center to assuming operation of the closed home but this was dropped because of the poor condition of the building which had brought orders from the State Board of Health for extensive repairs. "It was going to cost a bundle even if they got ft through." Orr said of the plan for Tri-City to assume responsibility for St. Ann's. "It was a question of bringing about a sense of reality." The governor said there were several misunderstandings about the whole situation. He said that while he felt the state has a "moral responsibility" to help solve the dilemma caused by the eviction of the elderly persons, it was not accurate to say the state was legally responsible because of the conversion of the former Beatty Memorial Mental Health Hospital to Westville Correction Center.

Fleeces Bedford Wall Americans Still Held Captive After Viet War, Garwood Tells BEDFORD Ind (UPI) -The head o'f the Bedford Chamber of Commerce took a chisel to Sen WUliamProxmreD-Wis for criSSS 'federal mmies venTn Support of aTnestone nYstoncfl pro CHARLOTTE, N.C. (UPI)' Marine Pfc. Robert R. Garwood told U.S. intelligence officers he believed Americans were captive in post-war Vietnam but that he had no firsthand knowledge of them.

Garwood, convicted earlier this year of collaborating with the enemy during 14 years in Vietnam, has never publicly disclosed exactly what, if anything, he knows about the 2.500 American servicemen still unaccounted for in said to give any' details would risk their lives. He also said Russians "were everywhere" in post-war Vietnam. During the interview, Garwood said that it was "common knowledge among the Vietnamese population in Americans were being held and he outlined two Plan GfOUp To Consider where congresmen 'ongn ssnen have accused the Viet ofjol ding Two Jury Trials Set to have been returned. Government files also contain 15 volumes of sighting reports of Americans given to intelligence debriefers by Indochina refugees. More than 2.500 servicemen, mostly airmen, were never accounted for in Southeast Asia.

Some 160 of those were known to have been in captivity. Proxmire Thursday presented his monthly "Golden Fleece Award" to the Economic Development Administration, which approved $200,000 in federal funds for construction of a 850-foot replica of the Great Wall of China. The award goes to expenditures which Proxmire believes to be wasteful spending. "I have absolutely no objection to the Bedford community and the limestone industry building these structures with private money. But to use taxpayers' money to help is a public works boondoggle, "Proxmire said.

buked by Merle Edington, president of the Bedford Chamber of Commerce- since 1969. Edington said the senator "went off halfcocked." "He doesn't give a damn what all this is about," said Merle Edingtan, president the past 12 years of the Bedford Chamber of Commerce, "He can't create anything. We know what we're doing. It's a shame that Proxmire doesn't know what he's doing." Bedford, a center for the limestone industry since the mid-1800s, is building a $6 million monument park to support the area's heritage. It is intended as a tourist attraction and also will celebrate the history of the limestone industry.

Other parts include a foot museum for memorabilia and a replica of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The park has been in construction and planning for 14 years. Previously, the EDA had awarded Bedford $500.000 to help the pyramid constructed at one-fiftn scale. Bedford limestone has been used in construction world wide. Stone from area quarries was used in many structures, mclud- Center in New York city and the Pentagon at Washington.

DC. the $700,000 in funds, the remainder of the project cost is being donated by the limestone industry and private sources. The park is 40 completed. Zoning would not be made until his legal problems are resolved Documents obtained by UPI under the Freedom of Information Act say he was interviewed in 1979, nine days after leaving Vietnam. He told de- briefers his knowledge was hearsay He said he could provide no names of other prisoners, and that his information was obtained in conversations with peasants, who themselves had not actually seen live Americans His attorney halted the debriefing after Garwood said he did have firsthand knowledge of "third country nationals" being held against their will.

He The transport Plan Commission Monday will consider two rezoning petitions. Both rezoning petitions concern property on the south side. Small Parts 600 Humphrey is asking that newly annexed land adjacent to its facility be rezoned from residential to light industrial. T. M.

i Manufacturing Co. 707 Burlington is also asking for rezoning of in i manufacturing area as light industrial. The meeting will be conducted at 4 p.m. Monday in the city council chambers on the third floor of the city building. Dec.

14 at 9:30 a.m. He is charged with burglary in connection with a Jan. 9, 1980, breakin at Ind.ana Cashway Systems, Logansport. Wasko entered a not guilty plea April 22. 1980 Glenn Cunningham, 1006 E.

Broadway Apt. 3, will go to trial Nov. 9 at 9:30 a.m. He is cnarged theft in connection with a Feb. 19, 1980 incident in which several Vasco Jet valve springs were taken from Rockwell Iriterna- tional Mechanical Devices Division.

The springs are used in high performance auto racing engines. Cunningham entered a plea of not guilty on April 28. 1980. BURNETTSVILLE'S COMMUNITY DAY am Garage Craft Sale MAIN STREET FIRE STATION am Games for Kids COMMUNITY PARK pm fun Fair GYMNASIUM GROUNDS 3:30 Parade Chicken Fish Fry INSIDE GYM S3.SO/ADULT S2.00/CHILD Burnettsville Community Choir presents: "A SALUTE TO AMERICA" INSIDE GYM JERRY LONG. DIRECTING JOIN US ON SEPT.

12! LOGANSPORT MALL CELEBRATION-SATURDAY, SEPT. 12th STARTING AT 2:00 P.M. fli Hi Share Our Huge Cake (25 per piece) In Bills In Our Candles You May Be A Winner -ALSO- OVER Sign Up For Drawings For IN MERCH High School Band Colonel Lawrence "The Balloon Man" Free For The Kiddies Helicopter Rides Mall Parking Lot 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. Bridge City Squares And Pat Buchanan DANCES Car Dealers "HUGE TENT EVENT" In Mall Parking Lot.