Fund cut by county is possible

The program started six months ago and has saved thousands on medicine.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Losing Mahoning County's prescription drug assistance program would be a bitter pill for many senior citizens.
And, with the county's finances for next year a bit uncertain, officials with local aging advocacy offices fear the program could be among those that fall to the budget-cutting ax.
County Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock said commissioners don't plan to cut funding for the program, though she said all nonmandated programs will be under the funding microscope for next year.
Six months ago, the county launched a program to help seniors get discounts on prescriptions through the pharmaceutical companies. It is patterned after a similar program in Ashtabula County.
Kerry Collins, director of the county's council on aging, said seniors have flocked to the county's five sites where trained staffers are on hand to help them through the cumbersome application process.
Hundreds enrolled
About 425 people have been enrolled at the sites located in the Ohio Heart Institute, Visiting Nurses Association and Mahoning County Senior Center, said Rosemary Antonucci, site supervisor at the heart institute.
The total prescription savings for those clients so far is about $252,090, Antonucci said. The Heart Institute site is the only one with a full-time staff. The others are part time.
The program also operates sites at the Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana and the McGuffey Centre, but statistics for those sites were not available, Antonucci said.
"It's working," Collins said. "That's why we would hate to see this program get cut."
Deanna Clifford, community relations director for Ohio's District 11 Agency On Aging, said the program will be more effective once the application process is streamlined.
"Anything we can do to help people put together their patchwork of prescription drugs is going to be a benefit," Clifford said. "But when it gets fully up and running, this is going to be a tremendous program."
Large senior population
Clifford said there are 56,833 people age 60 or older who live in Mahoning County. She said that's 22.1 percent of the county's overall population, which puts Mahoning among the top five counties in Ohio for senior population.
"It would be a great loss if we have to cut this program," Collins said.
Elizabeth Sublette, county budget director, said even with the county's bleak financial outlook for next year, the 6-month-old drug program isn't targeted for elimination.
"The commissioners strongly support it," Sublette said, noting that money for the program is built into the budget she has tentatively prepared for commissioners' consideration. She said commissioners are expected to vote on the 2004 budget Dec. 18.
Commissioners have received funding requests totaling some $60 million for next year, but expect to have only about $48 million available for appropriation. That means they'll have to make cuts, and discretionary programs are generally among the first to go.
"That program is certainly a priority for us, but the reality is that all of our discretionary, nonmandated programs are going to have to be scrutinized," Sherlock said. "That would not be the first thing we look to cut."
Sherlock said even though the prescription program isn't a mandated service, it contributes to the quality of life for the county's senior population, and commissioners will consider that.
Saving on software upgrades
Collins said the computer software that the county received from Ashtabula County is being rewritten and upgraded to make it more "user-friendly" by program staff, and make the program more efficient.
Software problems have frequently forced staff to shut down their computers, which cuts into the time they have available to service customers.
The county initially looked for an outside vendor to develop the improved software, but ended up doing the work in-house.
Stephen J. Stanec Jr., county director of information technology, said when he learned that it would cost the county some $10,000 to have an outside vendor develop the software, the data processing department "saw an opportunity to perform the same work in-house and save that money."
bjackson@vindy.com