Nursing Homes Struggle to Care for Increasing Proportion of Severely Obese Residents

​Many nursing homes lack the staff, equipment, and knowledge to care for an aging population that is shifting from the "slight" nursing home resident of the past to increasing numbers of "obese seniors" faster than nursing homes can adjust, according to a December 15, 2015, New York Times article. With the proportion of moderately and severely obese residents increasing rapidly, many nursing homes are discovering that the lack of Medicaid reimbursement for specialized equipment (such as certain lifts, larger beds and wheelchairs, and longer intramuscular needles) hampers their ability to care for such residents.