The Wisconsin Long-Term Care Coalition: Keep Our Care at Home Resolution

* 1. Read the following resolution to consider whether your organization can sign on in support.

A RESOLUTION TO:
Retain Wisconsin’s Current Long-Term Care System — Family Care, IRIS, Partnership, and Aging &
Disability Resource Centers — and make it available in all counties

WHEREAS Governor Walker’s 2015-2017 budget proposal would dismantle Wisconsin’s nationally admired long term care (LTC) system currently serving nearly 55,000 older adults and individuals with disabilities, and substantially reduce legislative oversight of the LTC system;

WHEREAS The governor’s budget would eliminate IRIS; radically change Family Care and replace all 8 existing regional, homegrown LTC managed care organizations (MCOs) with statewide for-profit health insurance companies providing both health care and LTC services (using a no-bid process); and give authority to the Department of Health Services (DHS) to eliminate county-run Aging &Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) by contracting out many of their functions;

WHEREAS this massive upheaval was initiated with no input from people receiving LTC services or their families, aging or disability advocates, local officials, MCOs, ADRCs, provider agencies, the State Long Term Care Advisory Council, or legislators;

WHEREAS the current LTC system was the outgrowth of four years of intensive LTC reform planning involving LTC consumers and families, aging and disability advocates, providers, counties and state officials, resulting in strong bi-partisan support for a LTC-only version of Family Care which now enjoys very high customer satisfaction ratings;

WHEREAS the hoped-for reforms have actually been produced by the current system: reducing nursing home utilization, “bending the curve” on Medicaid spending, reducing the portion of Medicaid spent on LTC, and creating locally–based ADRCs to provide prevention and one-stop information on LTC for all citizens;

WHEREAS the current system of Family Care, IRIS, Partnership, and ADRCs has created huge savings for taxpayers while maintaining quality: reducing the Medicaid portion of the budget from 53% in 2002 to 43% in 2011, reducing the nursing home population by 11,000 people, keeping administrative costs for Family Care down to 4.2%, and limiting MCO surpluses to 2%;

WHEREAS the IRIS program was started in 2008 to provide a non-managed care, free market alternative for people who want to self-direct all of their services and this popular, unique and flexible program has grown rapidly to its current enrollment of 11,500 people;

WHEREAS ADRCs have become a nationally recognized model and one of the most important roles of county government to meet a variety of needs and reduce the costs of a growing LTC population;

WHEREAS all of the projected $14 million in savings in state and federal funds in the 2015-2017 budget are the result of current expansion of the existing LTC system into7 northeast counties and there are no projected additional savings resulting from the governor’s proposed changes in LTC;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the undersigned organizations that Wisconsin should retain its existing successful and cost-effective models of Family Care, IRIS, Partnership and ADRCs, and the current level of legislative oversight; should make those models available in all counties to eliminate waiting lists, sustain quality, and achieve further savings; and should resume previous joint efforts of all stakeholders to continually pursue new opportunities to improve the LTC system.