Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding
Sharon kelly, owner of Rose of Sharon Senior Villa Retirement Home, left, plays with resident Raymond Williams, 65, during a morning activity in the home's community room. Additional funding from the new Tennessee Medicaid waiver program has allowed the facility to install televisions, make structural repairs and purchase much needed items.

A year ago Rose of Sharon’s Senior Villa struggled to make its payroll.

This month, the Alton Park assisted living facility celebrates a $60,000 renovation that included flat-screen TVs in every bedroom, crown molding around its doors and a remodeled stainless-steel kitchen.

“That’s what happens when money is there,” owner Sharon Kelley said. “You can have the best of both worlds, not just having good, quality staff, but being able to get your building the way you want it to be.”

Ms. Kelley said the renovation was the result of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Medicaid waiver. The waiver, issued through TennCare, the state’s managed Medicaid program, allows for assisted living facilities to receive about $1,100 in state funding for each resident.

Tennessee is among 43 states that have adopted waiver programs to allow Medicaid-eligible residents to use state funding for assisted living facilities. The cost of assisted living is about half that of a nursing home, and many state officials view it as a more cost-effective and appropriate setting for many seniors, said Paul Williams, senior director of government relations for the Assisted Living Federation of America.

Before April 2007, when the waiver was approved, assisted living facilities received little state money and Rose of Sharon’s received none, Ms. Kelley said.

She was borrowing $4,000 a month just to pay her expenses, she said.

“We had no revenue,” she said. “The roof was leaking. I really thought it was over.”

With the waiver Rose of Sharon’s, which Ms. Kelley said has 21 residents, gets about $23,000 per month.

Ms. Kelley is one of 300 assisted living operators in Tennessee who have received the benefits of the Medicaid waiver. There are two others in Hamilton County — the Health Center at Standifer Place and St. Barnabas Assisted Living.

Brenda Williamson, administrator at the Health Center at Standifer Place, said the waiver enables residents to live there who otherwise might be forced to live at home because of an inability to pay. Many of her residents are widows and depend on Social Security for income, she said.

“Without (the waiver) a lot of residents would stay in their homes being lonely,” Ms. Williamson said. “This is a place that offers 24-hour care, activities and meals. There are huge benefits in being around other people and sharing things together.”

Ms. Kelley hosted an open house Saturday at Rose of Sharon’s to showcase the changes made with the waiver funding. Those who visited were met with the sounds of falling water mixed with soft jazz playing on the building’s new intercom system.

“It’s a lot better,” said Valerie Smart, a resident care technician of six years. “On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a two. We needed repairs on everything.”

Shirley Kuffrey, a 67-year-old resident, said the building is “real clean and pretty.”

Before the money from the Medicaid waiver, some assisted living residents went to nursing homes prematurely because those primarily were private-pay facilities, making nursing homes the only care some seniors could afford, said Eric Boston, CEO and president of St. Barnabas Assisted Living.

The waiver illustrates the future of senior care, Mr. Boston said. State funding soon will be provided for residents to remain in their own homes and receive the assisted care they need, he said.

“We see the waiver as a good first step in the future of elderly care services,” Mr. Boston said.

Mr. Williams with the assisted living federation said the ultimate goal is to allow seniors to remain in their homes and still receive proper care.

“Sometimes the toughest decision they have to make is to leave their homes,” he said. “They don’t need to leave. They just need the services (delivered to them).”