Industry Notes:
States Continue Medicaid Home Care Cuts
Published on Fri Feb 27, 2009
Stimulus bill isn't preventing cuts to vital programs. Florida state legislators are trimming home care services to rein in the budget. Lawmakers have cut 4 percent of the $13.3 million budget for the state's Alzheimer's Disease Initiative, which provides in-home help for caregivers, reports the Miami Herald. More state-funded home care programs will be up for cuts when the legislature convenes this month, advocates fear. The Florida Council on Aging estimates that home care costs the state $4,680 per person per year while institutional care costs $65,251 annually. "It doesn't make economic sense," Max Rothman of the Alliance for Aging for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties told the Herald. "They're cutting services that enable people to remain at home where they want to be and that cost taxpayers less money." Florida isn't the only state cutting home care budgets. In Massachusetts, the wait list for Medi-caid-funded home care has doubled since [...]