I am posting an email from our funding workgroup leader, and I am asking for your support.  You helped us so much last year to get legislation (AB392)  passed that provided funding for the local ombudsman programs statewide.  This funding made the difference for some of our local ombudsman programs to keep their doors open.

Her letter explains where we are today with our AB 392 funding.  Please see Joan’s letter below and support our efforts to have the source of our funding – the federal citations penalty account audited.

We thank you so much for standing with us,

Sylvia

Sylvia Taylor-Stein

Executive Director

Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,

~~~~~~~~~~~ THE LETTER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO:

Ombudsman Funding Workgroup
Ombudsman Support Network – Co-Sponsors AB392
Ombudsman Coordinators

FROM: Joan Parks & Mike Connors
RE:       Status of Ombudsman Funding – FY2010-2011

DATE:  January 28, 2010

Dear Friends,

We need your immediate help to obtain an audit of the DPH citation penalty accounts in order to ensure that moneys in the accounts are available to help fund the local long term care ombudsman programs.

Before explaining how you can help, here is a very brief update on plans for ombudsman funding legislation this year.

Assembly Member Mike Feuer is considering our request to carry a bill that would replicate AB 392 by seeking a $1.6 million appropriation in FY 10/11 for local ombudsman programs from the citation penalty accounts. He is concerned about the availability of funds in the citation accounts and has been seeking updated information from DPH. We hope to learn his decision soon and to schedule a call with all of you to discuss plans for moving forward.

There are strong signs that the Administration and Department of Public Health will oppose continuation of the AB 392 funding. The money is not in the Governor’s budget. Additionally, DPH wrote key legislative budget officials earlier this month reporting that the federal citation penalty account is virtually bankrupt. The Department’s documentation shows a retroactive $2.6 million offset to this account but doesn’t explain the disappearing funds.

Thus the need for an audit. Fortunately, Mike Feuer and several other legislators wrote the attached letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) seeking an audit by the Bureau of State Audits. The Committee is scheduled to consider this request during its next hearing on Wednesday, February 17 at 9:30 am in Room 444 of the Capitol. See attached letter.

This is where we need your help. Before February 17th, please send letters of support for the audit to Assembly Member Alyson Huber, Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, and copy your letters to the other members of the JLAC, which includes 7 members from the Assembly and 7 members from the Senate. The Committee Roster is listed at: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp?committee=208

We are in competition for other audit requests and must take this opportunity to share our compelling reasons. The letter to Assembly Member Huber can serve as a guide for your letter.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Many thanks for your continued support!

Joan S. Parks, Administrator

Ombudsman & HICAP Services of Northern California3950 Industrial Blvd. Suite 500West Sacramento, CA 95691916/375-3307
Fax 916/376-8914

jparks@osnc.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• Institutions run by for-profit corporations, which account for about two-thirds of all nursing facilities, generally get lower scores than those run by nonprofits.

• Homes with more nursing staff members per patient, which also tend to be run by nonprofits, generally do better in the ratings.

• Homes with more than 100 beds tend to get lower scores in all categories, including health of residents and levels of nursing care.

• Ratings are lowest in Southern states, particularly for nursing care and registered-nurse staffing, and highest for homes in the Northeast.

• Slightly more than 20 percent of nursing homes nationwide have been regularly given the lowest ratings, and 12 percent to 13 percent have received the top rating.

• While more than 500,000 Americans die in nursing homes each year, more than 2 million return home after a nursing home stay of less than three months.

• The bad news for families trying to find a good nursing home for a loved one is that behind the ratings — a five-star scale — are many complicated issues that make it difficult to assess which institutions offer the best care.

“Everyone wants to have an easy way to look up homes,” said Larry Minnix, chief executive of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, which represents more than 5,000 mostly nonprofit nursing homes and other long-term-care providers. “The concept is a good idea, but they’re not really measuring the most meaningful things, like patient- and staff-satisfaction surveys, nor do the stars take into account the patient caseload.” Read More Here – Printer Friendly

I have reprinted this story from the Star showing how important it is to compare nursing homes and find the best match for yourself or a loved one.  The Long Term Care Services of Ventura County offer comprehensive information about long term care facilities through its Pre-placement Counseling Program.  – Sylvia Taylor-Stein

Attached is a fact sheet on what we know today about the impact of the State’s budget cuts on aging services. Details are limited at this point on how the cuts will play out. State contacts are saying it will be awhile until specifics are known. We will update you and the fact sheet as additional details become available. Trying to decipher the CA budget is sketchy so the stats in red on the fact sheet are on the conservative side. For example, different sources are saying there will be a third cut to SSI/SSP that will take an individual maximum down to $803 (maximum used to be $907) per month. (Imagine trying to live on $803 per month!)

NOTE: Federally funded grantees (Title III B, C, D, E, V and VII) are not impacted by the State’s budget cuts. However, the demand for these services may increase as a result of the reductions to or elimination of State funded programs.

RECEIVED FROM:
Ventura County Area Agency on Aging
“To Serve. To Guide. To Envision.”
646 County Square Drive, Suite 100
Ventura, CA 93003-9086
Phone: 805-477-7305 – Fax: 805-477-7312
E-mail: Christine.Voth@ventura.org
Website: http://aaa.countyofventura.org

Attached is the press release prepared by Co-Author, Assembly Member Mike Feuer, for your review.

Best wishes for a great weekend and my sincere thanks for the hundreds of letters of support and everyone who worked on this with us.

Sylvia

The Governor’s recently released May Revise General Fund proposals include more drastic cuts to Medi-Cal, SSI/SSP, IHSS, Development Disability services, and the elimination of entire programs serving children, elders and the disabled. Included among the proposals to address a $24.3 billion deficit for FY 09-10 are:

• IHSS: Reduce funding for In Home Supportive Services recipients by restricting services only to those recipients with a Functional Index score of 4.0 and above. According to one estimate, about 36,000 consumers out of 462,000 people would continue to receive IHSS services, because all of the domestic and housekeeping activities that allow people to remain at home would be eliminated. Each recipient is given an FI ranking in each of 11 activities of daily living (ADLs). A weighted average of these rankings is calculated to determine the FI score.

• Eliminate funding for the Caregiver Resource Centers, which provides free and low cost support services to caregivers and an entry point to services in every county in California.
• Eliminate Adult Day Health Care, sending thousands of consumers to nursing homes
• Eliminate all state funding for Community Care Licensing – the “oversight” and licensing agency for over 86,000 entities, serving over 1,446,000 consumers, including 7,879 residential care facilities for the elderly, with 168,000+ residents
• Eliminate the Healthy Families Program, which provides health care for over 900,000 California children
• Eliminate the Multi Purpose Senior Services (MSSP) program and Community Based Services Programs