Eleven agencies that provide support to help Kansas seniors stay in their homes are starting to put some on waiting lists following state budget cuts, KHI News Service reports.
The $2.1 million reduction to the state’s Senior Care Act programs was part of a package of cuts Gov. Sam Brownback made last month after the Legislature sent him a budget that didn’t balance.
The Senior Care Act cuts that go into effect July 1 will affect in-home services that are provided to Kansans 60 and older who aren’t poor enough to qualify for them under the Medicaid frail/elderly waiver.
“This will affect about 80 clients just for our agency in the Barton County area,” said Brandi Gruber at the Great Bend ElderCare Inc. office.
Jocelyn Lyons, executive director of the Jayhawk Area Agency on Aging in Topeka, said in a news release that the decrease in funding “came as a complete shock” and represents about 30 percent of the program’s budget.
“The cut to the Senior Care Act program challenges our agency in determining how our consumers will continue to receive services and avoid early nursing home placement,” Lyons said.
The $2.1 million cut to the program will undermine in-home services to senior citizens in Kansas and cost the state significantly more in the end, said Janis DeBoer, executive director of the Kansas Association of Area Agencies on Aging & Disabilities.
“These cuts are shortsighted. They will cause the frail and elderly to lose weekly in-home services and hasten the date when people are forced out of their own homes into nursing homes’ said DeBoer.“Facts show that state taxpayers will pick up a bigger check for nursing homes.”
“We are concerned about the impact of this significant cut on seniors and their caregivers,” said Dave Geist, director of the SouthWest Kansas Area Agency on Aging in Dodge City. “The cost of Senior Care Act services averages about $200 per month compared to average nursing home costs of almost $4,000. How can these cuts be happening? It seems as though Kansas is creating a roadmap for seniors that leads only to nursing homes.”
“Here in southwest Kansas we plan to reduce services equally across the board to the 185 senior customers were are currently serving. This will allow them to continue to receive some services. We just hope some of our seniors can hold on because their next move could be to the nursing home.”
Monica Anderson, a case worker with the Johnson County AAA, said the agency has started to wait-list some Kansas seniors applying for housekeeping and attendant care services.
“We’re trying to serve as many people as we can,” Anderson said, “and we’re doing that by looking at their long-term care threshold scores when we go out and assess them. Depending on their level of need, we’re kind of allocating hours — a few here, a few there.”
The nonprofit KHI News Service (KHI.org) is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. This story also contains regional information submitted to the Great Bend Tribune by Janice Walker, Barton County representative for the Silver Haired Legislature and Brandi Gruber, RRT-SDS, director home services division, ElderCare Inc.
The complete KHI story "Budget Cuts Lead to Waiting List for Senior Citizens," can be read online here.
