◊ JOB MATCH
 

June 7, 2005

INSTITUTE, W.Va. (AP) - Providers and clients' family members say they need more information on proposed changes to a Medicaid program that serves mentally retarded and developmentally disabled children and adults.

The lack of specifics was one of several concerns voiced Monday during a public forum in Institute on the state's draft renewal application for the Medicaid Title XIX Waiver program. West Virginia has to renew its waiver application every five years.

"I don't know how to plan," said Karen Barry of Martinsburg, W.Va., executive director of Stepping Stone Cottages LLC, a small private behavioral health facility. "I don't know what to tell that mom that comes in that has that desperate need now."

Barry also worries about what will happen to services for her 28-year-old son, Glendon, who has spina bifida and moderate mental retardation, and is a client of the waiver program.

"It's as much what's not said as what is said," Barry said after the forum. "What's going to happen to the rate schedule? Are there going to be caps?"

Barry and others said they have heard about the possibility of a $28,000 income cap for a client's family.

She said that could lead to the "reverse effect" of the waiver's intention to allow people to stay in their own homes rather than be institutionalized, which would cost more.

Department of Health and Human Resources spokesman John Law said Monday he had not heard anything about the cap proposal.

West Virginia is considering several proposals to cut $115.7 million out of Medicaid, which faces a $156 million deficit. Overall, about 373,000 West Virginians receive services from the state-federal health-care program for the needy, aged, blind and disabled, and low-income families with children.

The Medicaid Title XIX Waiver program waives Medicaid family income guidelines for middle-income families and provides services to more than 3,800 adults and children who otherwise would have to live in a residential care facility for the mentally retarded.

Other concerns voiced at Monday's meeting included challenges in finding staffers due to training and paperwork, worries that changes are being made too quickly and difficulties in getting some children into the waiver program because there are no slots.

"Our kids need more help after years of no service," said Reggie Wright, a practitioner involved in the state's Birth to Three program. Her 20-year-old son, Andrew, was born with Down's syndrome and is a client of the waiver program.

"If the services that they need are not available, their issues become worse," she said after the forum. "We're not just talking about adults here, we're talking about the whole lifespan of services."

Forums were also being held this week in Morgantown, Shepherdstown and Beckley on the Mental Retardation/Development Disability Waiver program, as well as on Medicaid's Aged/Disabled Waiver program.

Concerns with the Aged/Disabled program's draft application include a proposal to reduce client slots, according to members of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Project, which was conducting the forums for the state.

Law said the projected reduction is from 5,400 to about 3,400 slots over five years starting in 2006. He said the proposal is part of an effort to stay within the program's approximately $52 million annual budget.

"That's still tentative," Law said.
 

~*~  Contributions are NOT (yet) tax deductible.  ~*~

++  PRIVACY STATEMENT  ++

MRU WV will never share its members' personally-identifiable information (name, address, phone, or e-mail address) with any outside person or organization without express consent.

This page last updated Friday 17 June 2005