Coastline Elderly Services, Inc.
Elder services Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Gosnold, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, and Rochester
Bill number is now available–S. 2037, a bill to reauthorize and improve the Older Americans Act of 1965, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Vermont Senator Sanders spoke about his bill on the Senate floor. He gave a big shout out for congregate meals, senior centers and home-delivered meals.
Watch here–
Senator Sanders on Older Americans Act
STATEWIDE—Santa Claus won’t be stopping at the homes of nearly 1,000 elderly Baystate residents this Sunday—because he’s got no home care services to leave under the tree.
Inadequate state funding for home care has resulted in a growing waiting list of elderly people who are at risk of going into costlier nursing facility beds. One month ago, the waiting list of the so-called “Enhanced Community Options Program” (ECOP) stood at 742. That number has now increased to 905 elders as of December 15th. The waiting list stood at 551 in October—so the line has lengthened 64% just since Halloween.
According to Mass Home Care, which represents the 27 non-profit agencies that manage the home care program, the waiting list will break 1,000 people by the time the General Court goes back into session in January.
“This is the season of families,” commented Al Norman, the Executive Director of Mass Home Care. “Our loved ones are gathering together this weekend, and the peace and joy message of the season is undercut by the reality that there are hundreds of seniors who might not be able to live at home unless we get them more care.”
The ECOP program is targeted to elders who meet a nursing facility level of care—but who can be kept at home. ECOP enrollees are not eligible financially for MassHealth.
“These seniors all have significant disabilities,” Norman said. “But they’re not quite poor enough to get onto Medicaid. If they have to go into a nursing facility, they will qualify for Medicaid in matter of weeks.”
ECOP clients often are elders who started off in the home care program receiving just a few hours of care weekly, but as they became more disabled, they need the next highest level of home care—-the Enhance Community Options Program. Because of the waiting list for ECOP, some of these elders cannot get the higher level of support they need to remain living at home.
According to the Mass Budget and Policy Center, the ECOP program has lost -11% of its funding between 2003 and 2011, as measured in dollars adjusted for inflation in government purchased goods and services.
The Massachusetts General Court funded the ECOP program in FY 2012 at $45.8 million—the same level funded in FY 2011—but $2.4 million below the funding in the FY 2009 of $48.2 million. When adjusted for inflation, the appropriation in 2009 was $49.9 million. The FY 2012 funding level represents a loss of $4.1 million in adjusted dollars, and $2.4 million in constant dollars.
Across Massachusetts, there are 4,365 elders per month enrolled in the ECOP program. Many of these elders began receiving care in the basic home care program, which serves around 32,000 elders per month. The basic home care program only provides around 3 hours of personal care a week, and is not sufficient for people who are at a nursing facility level of care.
The cost of an ECOP benefit currently is $866. per month, or $10,392 per year—-which is roughly 18% of the cost of a nursing facility. According to Mass Home Care, it would take at least $2 million in additional funding to substantially reduce the waiting list for this program in the last six months of the current fiscal year.
“The additional funds would go a great distance towards closing the current gap between available funds and projected demand,” Norman explained. “
“This is frustrating for us,” Norman concluded. “Our job is to keep people out of nursing homes—not to keep them on waiting lists.”
“This is not the kind of holiday season we would have wanted for these seniors. It’s shameful to see malls full of shoppers—while seniors have no one in their homes to give them the level of care they need,” Norman said.
90 PEOPLE HAVE SENT 984 EMAILS TO THEIR LAWMAKERS AS OF 5 PM TUESDAY
From: Al Norman
As of 5:00 PM yesterday evening, a total of 90 people have sent 984 emails to lawmakers.
A number of State Reps have told us that they have had their meeting with House Ways & Means Chairman Brian Dempsey about what is on their “short list” of items for the supplemental budget that may be taken up next week.
Time is running out for you to send your email to your State Reps and Senators. We can do better than 90 people!
Please go to the link below, and send an email to your State Rep and your State Senator THIS MORNING about preventing waiting lists in home care:
http://masshomecare.org/AdvAlert/AdvocacyAlertsDetail.asp?sequence=83
Follow the simple instructions to send your message to lawmakers. Be sure to put your name and address before you start to edit your message.
Take two minutes to send your email now!
Attached is a letter Mass Home Care’s emailed this afternoon to U.S. Senator John Kerry congratulating him for his appointment to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, and urging him to take a “balanced” approach to revenues and cuts in formulating any deficit reduction plan.
Mass Home Care suggests:
According to Mass Home Care Executive Director Al Norman, there is a simply economic fact that underlies government spending on elderly home care. “The home care field is a perfect example of an industry that the private sector would never address,” Norman explained. “Thousands of adults and seniors on Medicaid are receiving care today using government health care funding. These consumers could never afford to buy such care in the private market—they don’t have the income to do so. But the existence of this program creates as many as 40,000 jobs for homemakers, home health aides, and personal care attendants. These workers spend almost all of their paycheck on basic living expenses, so their payroll goes right back into the economy. That’s a stimulus to economy with a multiplier effect well beyond the initial federal investment.”
Norman said if home care jobs are cut back, the economic stimulus created by having these workers active in the economy will be lost. “Government is rarely given credit as an engine of growth,” Norman concluded. “But a dollar of public money can create as many jobs and economic spinoff as a private sector dollar. There really is very little difference in terms of payoff to the economy.”
Discretionary Programs Should Not Bear the Brunt of Deficit Reduction
The deficit reduction negotiations have reached a critical point. Based on what n4a is hearing from the White House and the latest news reports, we are gravely concerned that in order to avert a disastrous default, consensus is starting to build around a two-pronged approach. While there are still major differences to resolve, the most likely deal at this point is not a balanced approach and will essentially…
1. Not commit, to any certain degree, to raising revenues in order to help reduce the deficit.
2. Make short and long-term cuts to domestic discretionary programs largely via spending caps.
3. Put off the debate over entitlement cuts and tax reform until 2013.
The latest plans do not resolve the issue of whether revenues need to be a part of the solution, nor do they offer any details on changes or cuts to the entitlement programs. All that is being discussed in any detail is overall spending caps, which would affect only discretionary programs such as Older Americans Act, LIHEAP, Social Services Block Grant and hundreds of others.
It is vital that you—and every advocate for aging issues in your community—reach out to your Members of Congress and the White House TODAY. While we of course appreciate the determination of the President and some Members of Congress to avoid a default, it should not require total capitulation on raising taxes for the highest-earning Americans. If this is the case, the price will be paid by the most vulnerable older Americans who rely upon OAA or other social supports to preserve their health and independence.
Short talking points are below, but for background and more detailed talking points, see n4a’s newest advocacy tool, attached.
Action Requested:
STEP 1: Call your Representatives and Senators TODAY. Call their offices directly (the number can be found on their website), as the Capitol Switchboard (202.224.3121) has been jammed today. If you cannot get through to DC, call their district offices or email them via their websites, which are listed on www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
Talking Points:
STEP 2: Call or email the White House: 202.456.1111 or www.whitehouse.gov/contact Let the President know that he needs to continue to stand up to those elected officials who refuse to negotiate in good faith, who will not consider raising revenues in any form, and who are willing to risk the health of our economy in the process.
Talking Points:
STEP 3: Ask other advocates to do the same! Urge colleagues, advisory board members, volunteers and clients to make calls to their legislators.
If you have questions about this Advocacy Alert, please contact n4a’s Public Policy and Legislative Affairs staff, Amy Gotwals and K.J. Hertz, at 202.872.0888 or agotwals@n4a.org, khertz@n4a.org.
July 26, 2011
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a)
1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 872-0888
Fax:(202) 872-0057
Dear Colleagues,
With the temperature rising over 100 degrees—-the attached AUGUST issue of the AT HOME newsletter is literally HOT off the press.
To add some sizzle to an already outrageous heat wave, consider these items for your issues BBQ:
So grab a lemonaide on the rocks, kick off your shoes, and enjoy this issue of At Home August, 2011!
Al Norman
Mass Home Care
EMAIL AND PHONE YOUR SENATORS
From: Al Norman, Mass Home Care
Mass Home Care is urging advocates to cut and paste the list of amendments below, and email it to your State Senator, AND THEN pick up the phone this afternoon and tomorrow morning and call 1-617-722-2000 and follow the prompts to be connected to the Senate switchboard, where you can ask for your State Senator, and then deliver the following message:
“Hi, this is ________________ calling from the District. Would you please ask the Senator to sign onto the following amendments to the Senate Ways & Means budget to help elderly people:
PLEASE CALL SENATORS CLARK, JEHLEN AND RODRIGUES AND ASK TO BE ADDED TO THEIR AMENDMENTS LISTED ABOVE.
Proposed federal budget cuts could leave some seniors without their only source of income. The cuts target the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), the only federal workforce program specifically targeted to older people, providing community service job training to low-income adults age 55 and over.
Rita Boudreau, the Project Director of the Senior Employment Program, which is funded through a grant from Senior Service of America and operated by Coastline Elderly Services Inc., in New Bedford, MA, explains that when she began working with the SCSEP program 10 years ago, many participants were seniors just looking for a little extra income to supplement their social security checks.
“The last few years I’ve been seeing more people aged 55 to 62 who come in after having exhausted their unemployment and are still unemployed. They have no income and are at risk of becoming homeless”, she explains.
The President and Congress are discussing cutting the program by 50 % or more.
Not only would the seniors be affected but also the community. This year the program has generated over $ 700,000 to the local economy in wages and fringes. In addition, because the participants work at more than 50 non-profits and government agencies, the cuts would hurt these groups that are already experiencing their own budget woes and many would suffer the loss of additional staff. [Read more...]
SEND THIS EMAIL TO YOUR STATE REPS TODAY!
PROTECT THE RATES TO ADULT FOSTER CARE AND ADULT DAY CARE!
From: Al Norman, Mass Home Care
It is anticipated that next week on Beacon Hill the House will take up an FY 2011 supplemental budget filed by the Governor. This is our first chance to protect some of the “community first” programs that the Governor decided to cut with only one quarter of the year remaining.
The Governor has proposed rate cuts to Adult Foster Care, Group Adult Foster Care, Adult Day Health, and other support services. The rates were slated to start March 15th—but the Governor took them off the table—for now.
We could learn at any time that the cuts will move forward—so we have to take action now to protect these programs. The rate cuts to AFC and ADH on an annual basis would cut programs by nearly $8 million. In the FY 2012 budget we will have to deal with the Governor’s plans to shut down most Adult Day Health programs entirely by redefining the eligibility of who gets ADH—but for now, in the supplemental—we are just fighting for rate protection.
To Do: Please email your STATE REPS today the message below, then call them at 617-722-2000 and give their staff the following message:
“Dear Representative,
The House is slated to take up soon an FY 2011 supplemental budget filed by the Governor. This is your chance to protect some of the “community first” programs that the Governor decided to cut with only one quarter of the year remaining. The Governor has proposed rate cuts to Adult Foster Care, Group Adult Foster Care, Adult Day Health, and other support services. The rates were slated to start March 15th—but the Governor took them off the table—for now.
We could learn at any time that these rate cuts will move forward—so we have to take action now to protect these programs. These services help keep MassHealth members out of costlier institutional settings. The rate cuts to AFC and ADH on an annual basis would cut programs by nearly $8 million.
What I am asking you to do to protect these programs is to ask the Speaker and Chairman Dempsey to add the following language into line item 4000-0600: “provided further, the rates paid by MassHealth to providers of adult foster care, group adult foster care, and adult day health shall be those in effect as of January 1, 2011.”
1-800-243-4636 
