Lombardy, the RSA increase the fees to cover the higher health costs for Covid

The unexpected and not at all desired Christmas gift arrived in late December and leaves little doubt. It was signed by the president of the Mandello del Lario Rest Home Giuliano Zanotta and communicated that “the Board of Directors with resolution no. 4 of 16/12/2020 determined a change in the amount of the residence fee for the year 2021 finalized the partial coverage of the higher health costs incurred by the Foundation to deal with the COVID-19 emergency such as the increase in medical services, the supply of medicines and medical gas, the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment “.

What was feared is happening: the black year of the RSA in Lombardy, already in the eye of the storm for the huge number of infections and deaths, now risks spilling into the pockets of citizens and guests. The reality of Como is not the only report and in these days many are complaining about the failure of the Lombardy Region to intervene, even in the vote on the Budget, in a sector that continues to be in crisis. Yet the opposition in the Regional Council has tried several times to raise the problem, but Gallera and Fontana did not consider it important to take action.

Mammì (M5s): Increase in fees could have been avoided

“Center-right without shame. – says to Fanpage.it the regional councilor of the 5 Star Movement Gregory Mammì -. Once again the Lombard council is deaf to the problems of citizens. The increase in the fees of some RSA could be avoided, for example by approving my amendment presented to the Lombardy Region draft law on reliefs to RSA, where I asked to link the funds only to providers who had not raised the fees paid by families “. For the pentastellato councilor this is” yet another demonstration of the inability to manage this Lombard government that does not listen to the political contribution of the opposition “.

The regional councilor of the Democratic Party is of the same opinion Carlo Borghetti: “One of my proposals, rejected in the Chamber by the center-right, was to reimburse the RSA all the higher costs incurred due to the pandemic (Dpi, sanitation, personnel …) while establishing a freeze on fees for guests and families for 2020 2021, because I feared that some structures would increase fees, as is already happening in some cases: it seemed to me a fair proposal to support the budget difficulties of the RSA but without making it burden on the pockets of citizens, who are also in new difficulties because of the pandemic “.

The Region does not cover 50 percent of healthcare costs for RSA guests

There is also a basic problem still unresolved on the Lombard RSA. The fees charged to guests of the RSA consist of two components, the social-hotel fee and the health fee: the social-hotel fee is the consideration for services of a non-purely health nature (food, accommodation, socio-educational staff …), and is borne by the elderly or his family members, or municipalities, and is defined by the managers of the facilities, as there are no regulations in this regard in Lombardy to date, with constantly increasing minimum and maximum amounts and with high territorial variability. The fact is that the regional coverage of 50 percent of the costs prescribed by the national Lea, the essential levels of assistance, is not respected for the healthcare quota in Lombardy, so much so that recent studies show that the average total cost per day of assistance in RSA in Lombardia is about 105 euros with an average regional contribution of 41.30 euros, that is 11.2 euros per day less than the amount due (52.50), and therefore far from respecting the aforementioned coverage of 50 percent. In this way, guests also have to pay part of their health care with their fees, which should instead be covered by the public contribution. For this Borghetti presented an Agenda to the Council at the end of December which invited the Lombardy Region to intervene on this gap. “The Agenda – says Borghetti – has been approved: now let’s see that it will happen in the course of 2021. I am aware that it is about recovering new resources, but it is also about respecting the constitutional rule according to which health is a universal right for the Republic, also for citizens who are hosted in retirement homes “.

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