"Senior Moments" Articles
*as featured in The New Haven Register, Living Section

Imagine seniors having a say over where Medicaid dollars go

By Jean Cherni, H. Pearce Company's Senior Living Services Program

Articles

2008

A fascinating and innovative program now in its’ early “pre-trial” stages, has important implications for the future of senior health care. Known as “Money Follows the Person”, it is a federally funded initiative to help income-qualified elderly and people with disabilities have the choice to receive services at home or in the community rather than at a nursing facility. The idea is that Medicaid dollars should not be tied to a particular institution but instead be utilized where-ever the individual chooses to receive his or her care. Sometimes this will mean arranging twenty-four hour in home care, which traditionally, Medicaid has not paid for. Dawn Lambert, Project Manager of Money Follows the Person for the State of Connecticut, feels that this approach is not only cost effective for taxpayers, but also leads to wonderful improvements in the quality of life for many seniors and people with disabilities.

Southbury resident and financial advisor, Joe Stango, was instrumental in raising awareness about this issue and lobbying for the program in an attempt to bring his elderly mother home to be cared for instead of remaining in a nursing home. Currently, a pilot program for which 700 people will be chosen over the course of a five year grant cycle, if successful, it could well become a national public policy for other income levels. Connecticut’s Department of Social Services is administering the program and highlights two significant reasons for its’ importance:

  • People served by home and community-based services report
    higher consumer satisfaction and quality of life.
  • Medicaid expenditures for people cared for in the home and
    community are approximately half of the expenses incurred by
    a nursing home stay.

The target population for the program includes Medicaid-eligible individuals who have been living in one of the following for at least six months:

  • nursing facility
  • chronic care facility
  • intermediate care facility
  • institution for mental diseases

As eligible people submit their applications, their names will be put in a lottery. Application forms and information packets will be available at a later date. Updated information is available by calling the Money Follows the Person office at (860-424-4897) or click on the Money Follows the Person link at the Department of Social Services web site at http://www.ct.gov/dss/site/default.asp.

Dawn Lambert cautions that there will be many issues and concerns as the plan moves forward---- housing, if the person leaving a nursing home is not going back to their own home or to live with family, availability of adequate health aides and personal care assistants, and the training and monitoring of personnel. When announcing receipt of the $24.2 million grant in 2007, Governor M. Jodi Rell said, “The idea is to use Medicaid dollars as flexibly as possible to give people more choices about their living situation”.

While 31 states expect to take part in the initiative, hopefully, Connecticut will be able to develop a dynamic program that will be a symbol of an overall changing direction in public policy.

Jean Cherni is founder of Senior Living Solutions, a retirement advisory service.  Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds, Branford 06405.

H. Pearce Company REALTORS® is a full-service real estate company with more than 100 agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline. Corporate and & Commercial offices are located in North Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com.




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