7 News shared the story of 95-year-old Norma<\/a>, who says she visits her daughter nearly six days a week at Comprehensive Rehab of Williamsville. Norma described roof leaks, buckets lining hallways and rooms she says felt unusually cold.<\/p>\nHer family and employees allege temperatures inside the facility were lowered to manage snowmelt and worsening roof leaks. The facility declined to comment.<\/p>\n
WATCH: Family and sources claim rooms in Williamsville long-term care facility kept cold to manage roof leaks<\/p>\n
Family and sources claim rooms in Williamsville long-term care facility kept cold to manage leaks<\/p>\n
Health care leaders say the concerns raised in Williamsville may reflect deeper financial pressures facing facilities across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a breaking point,\u201d New York State Health Facilities Association President Stephen Hanse said. <\/p>\n
Hanse says since 2020, 14 nursing homes have closed statewide, and roughly 70 percent are operating in the red.<\/p>\n
Documents show that New York\u2019s Medicaid program is projected to spend nearly $124 billion in the upcoming fiscal year. <\/p>\n
Long-term care services account for more than 60 percent of Medicaid spending, while serving about 6 percent of recipients.<\/p>\n
State leaders say they have delivered the largest nursing home rate increases in 20 years and invested in workforce support and long-term care services.<\/p>\n
But Hanse argues rising labor costs, insurance premiums and operating expenses continue to outpace reimbursement rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat disinvestment is a recipe for failure,\u201d Hanse said. \u201cWe are in a crisis,” he added.<\/p>\n
He also warns that as New York\u2019s population ages, sometimes referred to as the coming \u201csilver tsunami,” demand for skilled nursing beds is expected to increase, even as facilities struggle financially.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2030, New York does not have the beds to meet the needs of folks who need skilled nursing care,\u201d Hanse said.<\/p>\n
WATCH: Cold\u00a0rooms, leaking roofs: Health care leaders warn of ‘breaking point’ at facilities across NYS<\/p>\n
Cold rooms, leaking roofs: Health care leaders warn of ‘breaking point’ at facilities across NYS<\/p>\n
For families like Norma\u2019s, those budget debates feel distant.<\/p>\n
At 95 years old, she says she will continue showing up to check on her daughter, because she worries about what could happen if she doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The New York State Department of Health oversees nursing home inspections. <\/p>\n
7 News has reached out to the New York State Department of Health for a comment on the facility conditions. We are waiting to hear back. <\/p>\n
A staff member at Comprehensive Rehab of Williamsville declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) \u2014 Allegations of cold rooms and roof leaks inside a Williamsville nursing home are raising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-131948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}