CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – After loud protest from lawmakers, the state is holding off on plans to draw up a waiting list for elderly and disabled residents looking for home care in a Medicaid program as it looks for other ways to provide the care.
Plans were to implement the list on Oct. 6, but Assistant Health and Human Services Commissioner John Wallace said given the outrage expressed last week, the department intends to review caseload and cost projections,and the reasoning behind suggesting the wait list in the first place.
“This was not something lightly arrived at, but we’ll go back and see if everything looks the same, or if theres any kind of different analysis or different conclusion one might reach about what the likely spending amount might be and what the outcome might be for the next fiscal year,” he told the New Hampshire Sunday News.
Legislative leaders plan to meet with department officials Tuesday to find out what led to the wait list, and how to get rid of it.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Richard Green, R-Rochester, who was in the midst of the intense debates over the budget, said there was never any suggestion that money for the home care program would be cut.
“Im not going to play the numbers game with these people,” Green said. “We made a commitment to serve those people, and we provided them enough money to do it. They agreed it was enough money, they gave us their word they could do it, and its going to have to get done.”
Green said legislators figured on a 2.5 percent growth rate in the caseload and added $800,000 to the original budgeted amount to cover it. He said his committee also determined that shifting case management to outside providers would be cheaper than the current system.
Catherine Keane, a former Director of Elderly and Adult Services, recalled differences during the budget debate over how changing case management would affect the amount of money needed for the home care program.
At one point, as she recalls it, senators agreed to leave the question of how cases would be managed out of the equation and came up with a proposed budget figure.
“And the number at that point in time was a number that was favorable,” she said.
But she said at a budget meeting several days later, case management was a factor, the amount of money for actual treatment was lower than the original amount “and it was not adequate.”
She said she asked if there had been a math error and was told “thats what they could give us.”
Keane said if people being treated at home or in their communities don’t have enough support, they either go without services or end up institutionalized, which would cost the state even more.
She worries lawmakers might order health officials to transfer money from other worthy programs.
Green apparently believes transferring money is the answer. He said he believes Health and Human Services has enough money in its total budget to make the home care program work.
“Weve got to figure out a way to make sure these services are provided within the framework of the budget,” he said. “And Im convinced we can do that.”
AP-ES-09-28-03 1339EDT
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