Navajo Nation Rejects New Nursing Home

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — The Navajo Nation Council voted against a proposed 120-bed nursing home before ending its fall session. The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/2dtSNaW ) that the Navajo Nation Sihasin fund appropriated $8 million for the planning and construction of a new Chinle Nursing Home to care for Navajo elders on the reservation. The plan, however, needed at least 16 yes votes from the council to be approved. It failed with a vote of 14-6 after a long debate. The current Chinle Nursing home was built in 1968 and does not meet Medicare/Medicaid Services federal requirements and is fined annually for lack of compliance. The problems with the 79-bed facility result in many Navajo elders staying at off-reservation nursing homes.