Personal Independence Commission |
August 13, 2002Governor Office Building
Kirsten Dunham called the meeting to order. Members in attendance:
Public Comment:Michael Burns - St. Louis. Had concerns about senior issues and in-home care verses long-term care facilities. Ann Hartman - Missouri Coalition for Quality Care. Reminded the group that they all need to work for the time they become elderly and need services. Martha Hicks - Silver Haired Legislature. Has been working on the Informed Choice Workgroup. Offered several suggestions to ensure the Informed Choice Training is successful. First, the cooperation of the four departments that are involved. She would like to see the four people who represented the departments on the Informed Choice Workgroup take on the Choice Program as a part of their regular workload. Feels the program should be housed in Department of Health and Senior Services so people can call in and get the information about who to contact. Need to do away with the bureaucracy. Simplicity is the key. Keeping the cost at a minimum is important. Reports from the Departments on Spenddown:Mary Fallen - Division of Family Services. Spenddown is changing October 1. Medicaid will no longer pay any part of spenddown amount. To ease this change Division of Family Services is switching to a monthly calculation rather than quarterly. Persons on spenddown will not have to apply monthly. Individuals could pay the state their spenddown amount each month as a premium. This will then make them eligible. Division of Family Services will send out a client notification to those on spenddown to help them understand the changes. They are also working with other state agencies to help with the change. Linda Roebuck - Department of Mental Health. Looking at their divisions and the services they provide in relation to spenddown. DMH is going to try to pick up the cost of spenddown for their clients. Jeannie Lloyd - Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. This agency has the smallest number of people effected by spenddown. Those on spenddown are served through the Centers for Independent Living. The CIL's are helping with the education process. They have been asked to identify two groups: Hardship Group - Those having to do without the necessities of life, such as food and utilities in order to pay their spenddown. 52% of participants are in this category. At Risk Group - Those who are at risk of being institutionalized. 35% of participants are in this category. Linda Allen - Department of Health and Senior Services. Have looked at several options. Looked at a co-pay system and also at Medicaid buy-in, but felt neither of these would work for their clients. Are considering changing the eligibility rules for the Non-Medicaid Eligible services to only serve people over age 63. Several Commissioners expressed concern that we not base services on age but on greatest need. Linda Allen will look at alternatives such as limiting the level of home-maker chore. Update from Informed Choice WorkgroupMike McCarthy gave an update on the work of the Informed Choice Workgroup. He handed out packets with a draft of the training package agenda, a summary of the items in the training and recommendations. Local community organizations such as CIL's and other disability or aging related agencies or organizations will provide the training to the Informed Choice Providers. The state agency roll will be providing the training to the community organizations. Training content - The training will take one day. There are five content areas:
Mike McCarthy then shared some concerns of the Informed Choice Workgroup. One thing holding up pilot training is lead agencies need to have representatives take part in pilot training. Need input from lead agencies as to who these people are. Lead agencies will select representatives and let Robin Rust know. Informed Choice Workgroup would like co-chairs of PIC to meet with representatives from the nursing home industry to explain Informed Choice Training. Division of Senior Services said they were going to meet with the nursing home industry to tell them about the community counselors. Linda Allen will involve Mike McCarthy in their meeting. Senior Services also indicated their goal was not to talk to consumers until there was a plan of action in place. Senior Services does not go into nursing homes unless asked to. Department of Mental Health indicated they want Informed Choice Training available to their staff. DMH would be lead agency for mental health facilities such as Habilitation Centers or ICF's. Neva Thurston requested Informed Choice Training be available to the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities. Other BusinessKirsten Dunham requested the state agencies email her where they are on PIC Action Plan items before the next PIC meeting. Kirsten also recommended that the PIC look at the Action Plan to see if they could set up work groups to deal with some aspects. Could involve members of the Olmstead Stakeholders Group and community advocates. Rob Honan gave a brief report on the Olmstead Stakeholders Group and their activities. Robin Rust reported that DMS submitted a request to CMS in June to amend the Real Choice Systems Chang grant to include nursing home transition funds. She also reported that the RFP for Real Choice Systems Change Grant is moving along. Meeting was adjourned. |
