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Of course, they will need to qualify, but this allows your loved one to remain in their home with all the care they need.


health.ny.gov/facilities/long_term_care/waiver/

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Or their children if they have no spouse. I do 24/7 care is for five yeArs. I have systemic lupus. RhdumToid arthritis and about five others I won't go into. At this point my life expectancy is shorter than my moms from this stress. I am only 56 mom is 83. I'm all in if someone shows me the ropes
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Somehow we need to fight and get all the states to pay spouse care givers.
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Does anyone know if Florida has any programs to help keep a person from having to move from their home into a nursing home and help pay te caretaker whether it be a family member or a hired person or even provide assistance thru medicare hmo
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Joyce - what is likely happening for the program is that the medicaid waiver for it will not be renewed. Medicaid (medicaid not medicare) as initially written in the 1960's was about paying for LTC in a NH or skilled nursing type of facility for those at need financially & medically. It was & still is dedicated (set into law) primarily as funding for skilled nursing care. But as Medicaid is a joint federal & state program, the state -as administrator of medicaid - is allowed some discretionary use of some of the funding. States do this by having waivers.

Waivers are for a specific period of time and a more narrow set of services. Like Medicaid paying for AL is a Medicaid waiver, & this is why many states medicaid do not ever pay for AL, as those states do not even try to do a waiver program for AL, they spend their discretionary Medicaid $$ in other programs.

In home health services is another waiver program. Some states -like CA with its IHHS program done by counties - have a very organized system in place to qualify, train, pay & monitor in home care paid by medicaid.

The current trend for waiver funding is PACE or other PaCE like community center daily on site program. In many ways it makes better sense financially to fund a program where many use the services & health care professionals in a central site than doing 1-on-1 care at home or an individual AL waiver. PACE usually has a nonprofit partner that does staffing, compliance, etc so the state in theory does not have to have state employees getting paid to do those functions. The staff at a PACE are usually an employee of or contracted to the nonprofit and not an employee of the state. There is a PACE by us - the Benson Center that has as its non profit partner Catholic Charities, it is going so well that another center is being built out at another old Catholic convent site. If there is a PACE in your area, you may find that the elder will have to first be evaluated for and enroll in PACE before they can try to get on a different medicaid waiver.

Waivers tend to do 3, 5 & 8 year planning & funding cycles. Medicaid is a huge huge budget busting cost for states now as they are required to pay their share to get the federal portion, so pressure is on state budgets to defund any waivers that are 1-on-1 as they are just not cost efficient as compared to a wider community based program like PACE. All of the programs that have federal funding are required to show a cost benefit analysis (CBA) in order for funding or an action to be done. PaCE looks better for CBA than individual care. I know this is long, but I think its really really important whenever possible to share an understanding of just how the planning is often done.
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The elderly patient's POA can make all the decisions, but the patient does have to qualify for Medicaid and therefore is subject to all of Medicaid's rules. Unfortunately, we have heard that this program may be closing its doors in a couple of years....not totally sure, but decisions are driven by Medicare funding.
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The waiver uses Medicaid funding according to the website, therefore, I would think the person using the waiver would need to apply and qualify for Medicaid. Joyce do you know if that is the case?

Also it says "Waiver services are provided based on the participant's unique strengths, needs, choices and goals. The individual is the primary decision-maker and works in cooperation with providers to develop a Service Plan"..... therefore, I wonder how that works when the individual had dementia and cannot be the decision-maker?
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I'm not in NY so this doesn't apply to us, but I appreciate your volunteering this information. Thanks for doing so for the folks in NY!
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