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Group Urges Expansion of
Home-based Nursing Care
from Gongwer News Service, February 27, 2003
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A Medicaid
program that pays for low-income seniors and persons with
disabilities to receive in-home care should be broadened to
permit more people to receive long-term care in their homes
instead of in nursing facilities, a coalition of senior advocacy
groups said Friday.
The number of persons enrolled in the MiChoice program has
dropped by about half since 2000 because of cuts and a lack of
nursing patients switching to in-home care, according to the
Department of Community Health.
"It is time for Michigan to incorporate real choice into our
long-term care system by expanding the MiChoice program," said
Tom Czerwinski, president of the Area Agency on Aging
Association of Michigan. "If our state wants to successfully
finance Medicaid long-term care into the future, change must
occur now-and MiChoice is exactly the kind of change Michigan
needs."
Mr. Czerwinski said allowing more persons to receive in-home
care also makes good fiscal sense because it costs $59 less per
patient than nursing home care.
Community Health spokesperson Geralyn Lasher said the MiChoice
program is an "outstanding" one, and the administration is
looking for ways to provide those services despite a lean
budget. Governor Jennifer Granholm will present her 2003-04
budget next week with revenues $1.7 billion short of what is
needed to maintain current spending.
"We know that people want alternatives and choices," Ms. Lasher
said. "But we have to look closely and see what dollars are
available." |
