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TennCare
to give elderly an alternative to nursing homes By
Bonna de la Cruz, the Tennessean Pilot program will offer seniors, disabled option of home-based care A pilot program to give an alternative to elderly Tennesseans who are too frail to live alone but don't need the intensive care of a nursing home will be tested in Middle Tennessee, TennCare officials said on Monday, October 13. The pilot program would be the first major step toward funding home-
and community-based care in The pilot was announced by Gov. Phil Bredesen as part of a quartet of lawsuits against TennCare that were settled in the past few weeks. TennCare Director Manny Martins explained details to lawmakers. In one suit, known as Newberry, the state was sued on grounds that it did not provide appropriate home health care for people with disabilities. As part of the settlement, TennCare agreed to develop long-term alternatives that would be ''budget neutral'' and cost no more than $120 per person per day. That is the average Medicaid rate paid for nursing-home care. Martins said funding for the program will come from the $1.2 billion that TennCare spends on long-term care, mostly on nursing homes. He said he is unsure how many people the pilot program will serve or when it will begin, adding that he plans to hire a consultant this month to help design a network of providers. By 2005, he said, the state should have a ''full-fledged policy'' moving it in the direction of home- and community-based care. During a TennCare Oversight Committee meeting, state Rep. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis, told Martins she didn't understand why it will take so long. ''This is my ninth year as a member of the General Assembly, and we've been studying it for nine years.'' The deadly fire at a ''I don't think we're talking about taking away from nursing homes,'' Martins said. ''We're talking about giving people a choice. They get to choose whether they go into a nursing home or stay in the community. Nursing homes may well be partners in providing home- and community-based services.''
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
