Enough is Enough Petition for Home Care
- by: Home Care Association of New York State
- recipient: New York State Legislators and Governor Paterson
In addition to destructive cuts that loom on the horizon, home care agencies have also been subject to a raft of unfunded mandates and proposals that further threaten access to cost-effective home care services.
Understanding that the state faces difficult budget challenges, we urge New York's Legislature and the Paterson administration to support -- instead of home care cuts -- the "Home Care Accessibility and Efficiency Improvement Act" (HCA-EIA), a constructive, multi-part bill (S.5179) developed by the home care community to save Medicaid dollars while saving vital home care programs for the elderly, persons with disabilities, and the chronically ill.
Dear Legislator:
Millions of New Yorkers who rely upon home care services need your help.
Home care allows the elderly, persons with disabilities and chronically ill patients of all ages to remain safely in their own homes. It reduces a patient's chances of being hospitalized, and it succeeds in helping individuals avoid premature or unwanted admission to a nursing home. For these reasons, home care is an extraordinarily cost-effective and cherished component of our health care system that matches an appropriate level of care with a patient's wish to remain in the most integrated and most preferred health setting -- his or her home.
Despite these rational and humane reasons for supporting home care, Governor Paterson's administration has nevertheless indicated it will specifically target home care services for yet another round of draconian budget cuts, on top of the millions of dollars in home care cuts already implemented in prior budget cycles.
We understand that the state faces extraordinarily difficult fiscal challenges, and we wholly appreciate the delicate balance of addressing these challenges while maintaining vital services for New Yorkers. This is why the home care community has stepped forward to offer constructive solutions of our own, rooted in sound health care policies, for addressing the state's budget without decimating access to services.
Knowing that home care, by its very design, is an intrinsically cost-effective model of service delivery, the home care community has developed a comprehensive 33-part legislative proposal which further maximizes home care's cost-saving potential.
The bill -- S.5179, known as the "Home Care Accessibility and Efficiency Improvement Act" (HCA-EIA) -- will not only save Medicaid dollars but it will protect services for the elderly, chronically ill and persons with disabilities so that they can continue to be cared for at home, as is their wish. HCA-EIA achieves this important and achievable goal through home-care program enhancements, regulatory reforms, workforce flexibility, quality and performance standards, a realignment of financial incentives, and much more.
S.5179 is sponsored by Senator Craig Johnson. We the undersigned ask that you please join Senator Johnson as cosponsor of S.5179 and insist on pursuing constructive solutions for maintaining cost-effective home care services in place of catastrophic cuts that will only jeopardize access to care.
To learn more about S.5179, please visit http://www.enoughisenoughny.com/.
Thank you.
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