Roundtable discussion focuses on state budget

By William K. Alcorn

alcorn@vindy.com

GIRARD

Proposed state-budget cuts of 8 percent this year and 15 percent next year in home services for seniors will force people into nursing homes and ultimately cost the state more money than it saves, according to an assessment by a senior-care organization.

Retirees and senior citizens who attended a community roundtable Monday on state budget cuts and their impact on home- and community-based health care say they want to receive health and personal care in their homes rather than going to a nursing home.

Ninety-four percent of seniors want to live at home, said Anthony Cario, chief operating officer of Area Agency on Aging 11, which covers Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

“We are against the [state] budget cuts. We want consumers to continue to receive the services they have. Cuts will push people into nursing homes,” said Shirley Millerleile, business manager for Celtic Healthcare in Youngstown.

Celtic Healthcare is one of the local firms that provides in-home services based on a consumer-care plan such as delivered meals and transportation to services such as dialysis and grocery stores.

The purpose of the roundtable was to make seniors aware that the state budget calls for cuts in home services for seniors on Medicaid-waiver programs such as PASSPORT and assisted living, said Lisa Solley, chief of community relations, wellness and training at AAA11.

“Now is the time for seniors to get involved while they still have a chance to have their voices heard by state legislators,” she said.

PASSPORT — Pre-Admission Screening System Providing Options and Resources Today — is the front door to the system of long-term care services in Ohio that links Medicaid-eligible people with home-care services as an alternative to nursing-home care.

Some of the services provided through PASSPORT are adult day care, chores such as lawn mowing and snow shoveling, home- delivered meals, medical supplies, transportation, homemaker services, counseling and minor home modifications, Solley said at the roundtable discussion at Mahoning Country Club.

Dismantling the delivery of PASSPORT services through the Area Agency on Aging 11 and transferring the PASSPORT money to Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services is laying the groundwork for privatizing the program and giving it to managed care, Solley said.

A major difference between managed care and the coordinated PASSPORT-care management provided through AAA11 is that managed care monitors its providers via telephone calls to its consumers. AAA11 visits its consumers in person quarterly.

A case manager can tell immediately when entering a consumer’s home whether meals are arriving and baths and cleaning are being provided. That can’t be done over the telephone, Cario said.

The in-home visits also are a much better system to prevent fraud and therefore save or recoup money, he added.

“I understand everybody is negatively impacted by the state budget, but my biggest concern is that seniors can’t go back into the work force to increase their income,” said Karen Ambrose, executive director of The Senior Independence. Senior Independence operates the Senior Center on Fifth Avenue in Youngstown and Adult Day Care in Canfield.

“What happens to seniors, who are a very frail population, who don’t have options?” she said.

“I dare you to do what my grandma does,” said the Rev. Lewis Macklin II, representing the faith-based community, in calling for seniors to get involved. “Call your legislators and the governor until you irritate them until they listen. Don’t let them tell you [that] you are not important.”

Society is judged by how it treats its young and its old, said the pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown. “The legacy being created today is reprehensible in that elderly citizens have to choose whether to eat, heat or treat. The elderly should have dignity and be able to age with grace,” the Rev. Mr. Macklin said.