Kansas City-area nursing home closing after losing Medicaid funding agreement
LIBERTY, Mo. — Liberty Health and Wellness residents have to relocate to new nursing facilities.
Liberty Health and Wellness will lose its agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services as a skilled nursing facility in the Medicaid program effective March 7.
In addition, as authorized by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the provider's agreement as a nursing facility in the Medicaid program will also be terminated.Some residents like Cathy Meredith are concerned about where they will go next.
'I'm in shock. This is my home. This is where I live. I don't want to move. I didn't want to come here at first, but the staff has made it a home for me,' said Cathy Meredith, who has been living at Liberty Health and Wellness for a year and a half. 'I don't want to move because I'm so comfortable here. I am scared. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where I'm going to lay my head next week.'
There are over 120 people who will need to be relocated.
Administrator Amy Bax says they will have 30 days to continue placement after the termination takes effect on March 7.
'At this point, we've had to meet with all the residents, find out their first, second and third choices of facilities in the area and just basically wherever we can that has bed availability, and we'll send a referral, and they'll accept a referral if they can meet the needs of the resident. And then we start transitioning the residents to those facilities,' Bax said.
FOX4 has previously .
Liberty Health and Wellness was on the list of Special Focus Facilities, which includes nursing homes that could lose federal funding if they don't improve.
Bax claims that since new ownership took over in June of 2023, they've been trying to turn things around.
We asked staffers why this is happening. They wouldn't give details.
'I can't really go into that because we're appealing the citation and the termination. So I really can't go into details about that just because we're appealing it,' Bax said.
FOX4 , which says, 'These actions are taken because CMS has determined that Liberty Health and Wellness failed to attain substantial compliance with certain participation requirements.'
'It's a blow to us, and we don't feel like it has been enough time to decide,' said Liberty Health and Wellness resident Kathleen Amos. 'We haven't been able to go see any places. There was a letter they gave us that said something about trying to help us look. But then I found out we had to pay for the transportation.'
Staffers claim that the facility is offering residents transportation to look at nursing homes.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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