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More funds sought for in-home senior care Friday, Jul 18, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Members of the state Legislature's Senior Caucus said Thursday they have asked Gov. Mike Beebe for a $5.6 million increase in Medicaid reimbursement for agencies that provide in-home care to the elderly. With federal matching funds, the requested increase would total $20.7 million for the Department of Health, Area Agencies on Aging and private providers. Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, said a group met with Beebe Thursday on the issue. "I felt good after our meeting that he is going to try to find some funds to increase these rates during the next session," Smith said during a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on public health, welfare and labor. A spokesman for Beebe said the governor made "no assurances" that the money would be available. "It's an issue that's very important," Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said. "The governor of course recognizes that and sees how valuable the service is. From the standpoint of assistance, we're in a tough spot right now." Tim Herr, executive director of the Area Agency on Aging of West Central Arkansas in Hot Springs, told the public health committees that high gas prices, growth in Arkansas' elderly population and low wages for aides are jeopardizing the state's ability to provide in-home care for seniors. Herr said Area Agencies on Aging and the state Health Department employ about 4,827 home care aides and provide in-home care to more than 14,500 senior Arkansans, more than 90 percent of whom he said are low-income Medicaid recipients. Aides who care for the elderly in their homes or deliver meals to the elderly have to buy their own gasoline, Herr said. "At the AAA we are unable at this point to do anything to help defray that cost of gasoline for them, so what we're seeing is, we're losing aides," he said. Herr said much has been said about the advantages of home or community-based care over nursing home care for those able to live at home, but if aides are not available to provide services, "it's a moot issue. Seniors are going to have no alternative in the future but to go to nursing homes." The caucus is proposing to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates from $14.56 an hour to $16.76 an hour for in-home care, from $17 an hour to $45 an hour for targeted case management and from $4.97 per meal to $7.03 per meal for home-delivered meals. |
