This is unbelievable. Why would we put at jeopardy this very vulnerable population living behind closed doors. Sylvia
Category Archives: California
CaElderAbuse Plan to exclude felons as California caregivers halted
Posted in California, Sacramento.
– September 1, 2010
AB 2555 Status and Next Steps
Dear Friends,
The email below is from our funding team leader. Not really encouraging news from our hearing yesterday on AB2555, but we have a lot of support and hope that we can continue to move this forward.
Thank you all so much for your many support letters. They do make such a difference in these tight situations.
We are deeply appreciative.
Sylvia
Ombudsman Funding Committee
……………………………………………………………………………..
Hello All,
AB 2555 hit a speed bump at today’s Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing, where it was sent to the Suspense file. Nonetheless, we are very hopeful that it will move forward in a timely fashion due to the tremendous support for the bill.
Mike Feuer made a strong, passionate presentation, stressing that the ombudsman program helps save lives but cannot do so without funding. He advised the committee of the dire consequences if the funding is allowed to run out at the end of June and called for timely action on the bill. Although AB 2555 was sent to the Suspense file, the committee chair, Felipe Fuentes, seemed open to the possibility of taking action before May 27 when bills on the Suspense file are scheduled to be taken up.
Tippy Irwin did a great job as lead witness and was joined by about a dozen supporters and co-sponsors. Co-author Jim Nielsen and Assembly Member Calderon made strong statements in support of the bill and the urgency of its passage. The Department of Finance didn’t have any comments or concerns about the bill and the opponents didn’t speak at the hearing.
We are consulting with Arianna Smith of Mike Feuer’s office about the best way to keep the bill moving forward as quickly as possible and will keep you posted on how you can help.
In the meantime, please continue to urge legislators to support the bill. Please inform legislators in your area about the value of the ombudsman program and the urgency of passing AB 2555 in a timely manner. Please encourage legislators to sign on as co-authors of AB 2555 if they haven’t already done so and express thanks to those who are supporting the bill. Favorable media attention would also be very helpful.
Many thanks to all of you for the great support. Special thanks to the Alzheimer’s Association for making AB 2555 one of its top priorities for its advocacy day today. We are thrilled that 130 of its wonderful advocates worked the Capitol today to promote the bill.
A related item of interest: California Watch published an interesting article today on the pending audit and DPH’s failure to collect nursing home fines. See below. Additional information is posted on the California Watch website.
http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/why-state-only-collecting-one-third-nursing-home-fines
Why is state only collecting one-third of nursing home fines?
April 21, 2010 | Christina Jewett
California lawmakers have called for an audit exploring why state regulators are collecting only about one-third of the fines they have levied against nursing homes in recent years.
A legislative committee unanimously approved the audit in February. It is expected to look at how the funds that were collected have been spent in light of laws that say the money should be used to protect the health of residents in nursing homes.
“The whole point of having citation accounts and the penalty system is to deter nursing homes from doing anything but provide the highest quality care to residents,” said Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, one of 10 lawmakers who signed a letter calling for the audit. “If the fines coming in are less than a third of (those) issued, it leaves one to wonder if the state is being as effective as it could be in protecting nursing home residents.”
The Department of Public Health has levied fines in recent years after workers hit patients, stole from them or left them languishing in dirty diapers.
Records released to California Watch under the Public Records Act show that the state’s fine collections are falling behind. In 2005, authorities had collected 60 percent of the fines they levied, about $1.8 of $3 million.
However, by 2008, authorities collected a smaller portion of the fines, about $1.5 million of $5 million that had been assessed, or less than 30 percent.
In contrast, the same state department, the Department of Public Health, has collected nearly 80 percent of the fines it levies against hospitals that fail to report preventable errors, records show.
Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the Department of Public Health Center for Healthcare Quality, said in an interview that her office has hired 95 inspectors since 2006 who complete the inspections and have issued a rising number of citations.
Billingsley said nursing homes have the right to appeal fines and do not have to pay until the process is completed in administrative and state courts. When nursing homes are faced with a final fine amount, the department is equipped to force many nursing homes to pay, she said.
The department can garnish a nursing home’s Medi-Cal payments to collect unpaid fines, leverage it holds over 75 percent of the state’s nursing homes that accept low-income patients.
The state, however, writes off unpaid fines if a facility goes bankrupt, changes ownership or does not accept patients through the Medi-Cal program, a spokesman said.
While the appeal process delays fine collections, there are other reasons nursing homes don’t pay the full amount. In 2007, records show, half of the $4 million in nursing home fines issued were categorized as “allowable adjustments.” That means homes may have qualified for a 35 percent discount allowed under law for homes that pay promptly.
In other cases, an administrative law judge or mediator pares down a fine, a scenario that is becoming increasingly common. Since 2005, the number of cases that nursing homes appeal has doubled, from 110 to more than 220 in 2008, Department of Public Health records show.
Critics of the waning fine fund point to a 2004 law that gave nursing homes a powerful incentive to fight the penalties. That law, AB 1629, overhauled nursing home funding and allows nursing homes to bill the state for legal fees spent fighting citations.
It’s a scenario that Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, calls a “perverse incentive.” Other advocates call it outrageous and scandalous. “It undermines everything,” Alquist said. “We know that enforcement really needs to improve.”
And even as more nursing home owners are appealing more cases, they are seeing settlement proceedings end with deeper and deeper discounts. Authorities knocked $320,000 in fines down to $20,000 for one Los Angeles County nursing home, according to Department of Public Health data and citation-review-conference records.
Those fines were accumulated after workers turned off an alarm to a ventilator, an action that prevented workers from immediately realizing that a 90-year-old patient was disconnected from her breathing tube and was slipping away, records show.
Workers at the same home were cited 11 more times for continuing to dismiss the ventilator alerts, records show. Those citations each carried a $20,000 fine, but each was dismissed in an appeal hearing.
Lydia Sainz, administrator of Casa Bonita Convalescent Hospital, said the eventual dismissal of the bulk of the fines was the appropriate outcome. She said she felt the state reacted harshly under pressure from the outspoken family of the 90-year-old who died after her ventilator alarm was turned off. And she said the nurses who later dismissed other alarms did so when patients were in no distress.
Sainz said the state’s efforts to penalize the facility were a poor use of public funds. “It’s really sad because it’s hard to work in places like nursing homes and then you get a bad (reputation),” Sainz said. “It’s really hard for the nurses.”
Other observers, commenting generally on the state’s waning rate of fine collections, see the trend as evidence that nursing homes face little accountability if their actions or inactions harm patients.
“As long as facilities know there’s no punitive damage, nothing will change,” said Joan Parks, manager of the nonprofit Ombudsman Services of Northern California.
The Bureau of State Audits report on the nursing home fine fund is expected to evaluate the laws and rules governing the state’s collection of the fines and recommend better ways to go forward.
--
Michael Connors
Advocate
California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR)
Tel: 415/974-5171
Fax: 626/796-6256
Email: michael@canhr.org
Visit our web site at http://www.canhr.org
To help support our efforts, please visit:
http://www.canhr.org/help.html
———
Joan S. Parks,
AdministratorOmbudsman & HICAP Services of Northern California
3950 Industrial Blvd. Suite 500
West Sacramento, CA 95691
916/375-3307Fax 916/376-8914
jparks@osnc.net
Posted in AB 2555, California, Legislation, Nursing Home, Sacramento.
– April 23, 2010
AB 2555/Nursing Homes Received Millions While Cutting Staff
California Watch published a major story today that has implications for AB 2555.
It shows that hundreds of California nursing homes used increased Medi-Cal funding to pad profits by cutting staffing and wages. It ran in many California papers:
The Press Democrat – Santa Rosa (PDF)
The Orange County Register (PDF)
Contra Costa Times (PDF)
Oakland Tribune (PDF)
San Jose Mercury News (PDF)
Press Telegram Long Beach (PDF)
The Press-Enterprise – Inland Southern California’s Newspaper (PDF)
Many newspapers gave the story front page treatment and gave local examples of abuse and neglect.
The findings of this detailed investigation help demonstrate the dire conditions in many California nursing homes and the great need for a fully functioning ombudsman program.
Mike
–
Michael Connors
Advocate
California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR)
Tel: 415/974-5171
Fax: 626/796-6256
Email: michael@canhr.org
Visit our web site at http://www.canhr.org
To help support our efforts, please visit:
http://www.canhr.org/help.html
Posted in AB 2555, California, Legislation, MediCAL, Nursing Home.
– April 20, 2010
Status of Ombudsman Funding – FY2010-2011
Dear Friends of the Ventura County Ombudsman Program
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
See below list of email addresses of the Joint Legislative Audit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assemblymember.huber@assembly.ca.gov (Alyson Huber – Chair)
Assemblymember.coto@assembly.ca.gov (Joe Coto)
Assemblymember.devore@assembly.ca.gov (Chuck DeVore)
Assemblymember.Evans@assembly.ca.gov (Noreen Evans)
Assemblymember.Garrick@assembly.ca.gov (Martin Garrick)
Assemblymember.Hagman@assembly.ca.gov (Curt Hagman)
Assemblymember.Monning@assembly.ca.gov (William W. Monning)
Thanks to Jackie Lacombe for compiling this list!
Posted in AB392, Budget Proposals, California, Legislation, Sacramento.
– January 29, 2010
Care found in county reaches both extremes
Reprint of news article
By Michael Collins
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ventura County Star
Sylvia Taylor Stein, middle, visits Dorothy Daley, left, and Joan Wright, residents at Los Robles Care Center in Ojai. Stein is the executive director of Ombudsman, a service based in Ventura helping to advocate for people in long-term care. The facility is well ranked among the county's nursing homes.Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg
A third of the nursing homes in Ventura County received low scores on the federal government’s rating system that was set up to show which facilities are doing a good or poor job providing care.
Seven of the 22 nursing homes in the county received either “below average” or “much below average” rankings on the Nursing Home Compare system run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Two facilities — Victoria Care Center in Ventura and Thousand Oaks Healthcare Center in Thousand Oaks — were scored “much below average,” the lowest ranking possible.
Five others — Country Villa Oxnard Manor Healthcare Center, Shoreline Care Center in Oxnard, Camarillo Healthcare Center, Santa Paula Healthcare and Westlake Healthcare Center in Westlake Village — were rated “below average.”
Quality care advocates say the low rankings should raise a red flag for people who are shopping around for a nursing home for relatives.
“It’s plenty of reason for concern,” said Mike Connors of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. “It suggests that a large percentage of the nursing homes in the county are providing substandard care.”
Sylvia Taylor Stein learns that Los Robles Care Center was able to accommodate Richard Holden, left, when he had to leave his home and join his wife Estelle Holden, lower right, at the Ojai facility. Stein, executive director of Ombudsman, visits the center that has rated well among the county's nursing homes.Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg
Nursing home care in Ventura County “definitely needs to improve,” said Sylvia Taylor Stein, the county’s chief watchdog over nursing facilities.
But while the low rankings are alarming, the rating system relies on information that is often outdated and may not truly reflect the current state of care at a given facility, she said.
“It does give us a road map, but it doesn’t give us the whole story,” said Stein, executive director of Long Term Care Services of Ventura County’s ombudsman program, which investigates allegations against nursing facilities.
The national ratings are a good starting point for people searching for a nursing home, Stein said, but they should also visit the facility before making a decision and consult with her office if they have any questions about the current state of care at a particular home.
“We are in the nursing homes every week, and we look for improvements,” she said.
Better marks expected
Wally Annas, 101, loves to pet Judah, the therapy dog who comes once a week to the Victoria Care Center in Ventura. Annas gives the dog treats and also talks to him. Photo by Juan Carlo
The rankings for the two Ventura County homes that received the lowest rating possible were, in fact, based on complaint investigations from June 1, 2008, to Aug. 31 of this year. Stein said both facilities have since made improvements and, in the case of Victoria Care Center, she would not be surprised to see its federal rating upgraded.
The ratings system, implemented late last year, includes information on everything from fire safety and food preparation to rates of residents suffering from bedsores.
The system assigns each facility a ranking on a scale from one to five stars. Five stars indicate the home ranks “much above average”; four stars are “above average”; three are “about average”; two are “below average”; and one is “much below average.”
Four facilities — Fillmore Convalescent Center, Mary Health of the Sick and Convalescent Center and Nursing Hospital in Newbury Park, St. Joseph’s Health and Retirement Center in Ojai and Los Robles Care Center in Ojai — each received five stars, the highest rating possible.
- Homes operated by for-profit companies tended to receive lower scores than those that are nonprofit, a trend that also shows up nationwide.
In Ventura County, the average ranking was 2.8 stars for homes operated by for-profit companies and 4.4 stars for the nonprofit homes.
Ventura County has a higher percentage of privately owned, for-profit nursing homes than the rest of the nation. Seventeen, or 77 percent, of the county’s nursing homes are for-profit; the national average is 68 percent.
For-profit companies nationwide tend to operate their homes with smaller staffs, and that was the case in Ventura County. The average was 1.9 hours of staff time by a certified nursing home worker per resident per day at for-profit homes. In the five homes operated by nonprofits, the average was 2.2 hours.
Magdalena Suarez, 92, visits her husband Manuel Suarez, 84, at the Victoria Care Center in Ventura. She comes every day, helping him in whatever he may need, sometimes just combing his hair. Photo by Juan Carlo
With the poor economy, nursing homes can’t afford to pay employees, and that means they probably don’t have the employee ratio that they need, said Katharine Raley, program manager of the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging.
Another problem, Raley said, is that a lot of homes have staff members who don’t speak English well. That inhibits their ability to communicate with residents, she said.
“I have had complaints in the past from our Medicare beneficiaries that they can’t understand the employees,” she said. “I think that could be a breakdown of care.”
Dorothy Lowe gets help by her daughter Diane Jetton, who comes and visits her three times each year from Brevard, North Carolina, at the Victoria Care Center. She was helping her mom with some bead work. Photo by Juan Carlo
Raley said she has seen firsthand the appalling results of improper resident care.
“This summer, I had a client who was in a nursing home,” she said. “The client kept calling, and I visited. I found that he or she had feces on their hands. On the draw curtain that goes around their bed, there was feces on that. It was just horrible. I didn’t even dare look into the bed.”
Raley declined to identify the nursing home. But, “this is not that uncommon, I don’t think,” she said. “Other times, you can go in, and the smell of urine can knock you over even before you get into a patient’s room.”
Stein agreed that adequate staffing is probably one of the biggest problems the county’s nursing homes face.
Janine Chavira gets a gentle touch, greeted by Sylvia Taylor Stein at Los Robles Care Center in Ojai. Stein is executive director of Ombudsman, a service based in Ventura helping to advocate for people in long-term care. Stein regularly visits the facility that has rated well among the county's nursing homes.Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg
“It’s very, very difficult to find the labor pool for these facilities,” she said. “The caregivers have to pass background clearance checks, which they should. And we just don’t have a large labor pool for this kind of work, so it’s very difficult for facilities to find the care people that they need.”
At Victoria Care Center, inspectors found 35 health deficiencies during the period in which the facility received its “much below average” ranking.
The problems involved mistreatment of residents, nutrition and dietary deficiencies, pharmacy services, environmental matters and administrative issues.
New leader cleaning up
Sylvia Taylor Stein talks with Connie Perez, who is 100 years old and living Los Robles Care Center in Ojai. Stein is the executive director of Ombudsman, a service based in Ventura helping to advocate for people in long-term care and makes regular visits to the facility well ranked among the county's nursing homes. Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg
Stein said many of the problems could be traced back to the home’s previous administration, but the new administrator, John Albrechtsen, is working to turn the facility around.
“What they are dealing with today is the past, when they had a lot of issues that hadn’t been dealt with,” she said. “But they have done an excellent job of cleaning up the past. I really have a lot of hope for cleaning up this facility.”
Albrechtsen, on the job for just six months, said Victoria Care takes in residents that other facilities sometimes aren’t willing to accept. Those residents often require a higher level of care, he said, but the federal system doesn’t take that into consideration when assigning quality ratings.
With 188 beds, Victoria Care is the second-largest nursing home in the county. Because of the home’s size, the state assigns more inspectors to survey Victoria Care than it does at smaller facilities, which increases the likelihood that problems will be discovered, Albrechtsen said.
“While we do feel like there have been some challenges in the facility in the past, it’s very different now,” he said.
Thousand Oaks Healthcare Center was found to have 24 health deficiencies, involving issues of patient mistreatment, quality of care, resident rights, nutrition and diet, pharmacy services and administration problems.
A spokeswoman for the facility did not return a reporter’s phone call. But Stein said the facility recently underwent a change of administrator and is making improvements.
Big improvements possible
Ralph Madlener shares his experiences in the Hollywood film business to Sylvia Taylor Stein at Los Robles Care Center in Ojai. Stein is the executive director of Ombudsman, a service based in Ventura helping to advocate for people in long-term care. She visits the facility that has rated well among the county's nursing homes.Photo by Karen Quincy Loberg
A nursing home’s ranking in the federal system can change dramatically from one period to the next.
Twin Pines Health Care in Santa Paula, for example, was given a one-star ranking after investigators reported 11 deficiencies involving quality of care, pharmacy service, environmental issues and administrative matters.
But on Wednesday, the federal government upgraded its ranking to four stars. In other words, the facility went from the worst rating possible to being ranked as “above average.”
Administrator Cindy Jordan said while the facility’s one-star rating had been disappointing, she felt the state officials who inspected the home had been fair.
The facility addressed the deficiencies and went through another inspection in September, Jordan said, so she had been certain that its federal ranking would improve.
“If I thought I was running a one-star facility, I would definitely be hiding in the closet,” she said. “We come here because we like doing what we’re doing. We like to care for the residents.”
— Thomas Hargrove and Lee Bowman of Scripps Howard News Service contributed to this report.
Posted in California, Medicare and Medicaid, Nursing Home, Ventura County.
– December 3, 2009
Senior Advocate: Ombudsmen Have Crucial Role In Elder Care
Thought you might like to see Betty Berry’s article about the Ombudsman Program in today’s Star.
Q: I recently visited someone in a nursing facility and noticed a poster providing contact information for the ombudsman. I don’t know what an ombudsman does and what, if any, organization is involved.
A: The program you are asking about is the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program. It is a nationwide nonprofit organization that helps ensure quality care for residents of skilled nursing and assisted-living care facilities.
The word ombudsman is derived from a Swedish word and generally means a friend from the community. The long-term-care ombudsman is a specially trained and certified individual who advocates for quality care for the elderly residents in care facilities.
In Ventura County, ombudsmen are assigned to specific facilities and are on the premises on a weekly basis. Currently the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program of Ventura County has ombudsmen in 228 facilities that are home to more than 7,000 elders.
The program derives its authority from the Older Americans Act and the staff and volunteers are certified by the California Department of Aging. To qualify, an individual must complete 36 hours of initial training, 15 hours of field service and 12 hours of continuing education annually.
The ombudsman’s chief role is to ensure that residents of long-term-care facilities are getting the services they are entitled to. The ombudsman promotes better communication among all parties serving the residents, mediates for better care, monitors conditions of care and tries to find solutions to complaints and, if necessary, bring unresolved problems to the attention of the appropriate agency.
In addition, the program offers various services to residents’ families and the community. Prior to a family placing a loved one in a care facility, the ombudsman program offers counseling. The sessions include information about types of facilities and what options are available. This service continues after placement with family support groups.
One of the most important services is investigating and resolving complaints made by either the resident or the family. The ombudsman also informs residents about residents’ rights and provides information about services available.
All services are free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For information about this program, call 656-1986.
Sylvia Taylor-Stein
Executive Director
Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,
2021 Sperry Avenue Suite 35
Ventura, CA 93003
T: 805.656.1986 ext 13
Posted in Articles, California, Ventura County.
– October 21, 2009
Governor Signs AB 392 Emergency Funding Bill For Local Ombudsman
Hello Everyone,
This is wonderful news!!! Thanks to all of you who supported this emergency funding. The Bi-partisan support of this bill put it on the governor’s desk and we are deeply grateful for the team that made this happen.
On a local level I am deeply appreciative of our Board of Supervisors, Assembly Members and Senators, the Ventura Star for supporting this legislation, and all the many friends of the Ombudsman Program. I hope to write a lengthier thank you later.
I do want to get this into your hands right away. Thank you for standing with us.
Sylvia
Read the NEWS RELEASE — Governor Signs Feuer Legislation Restoring Protections For Abused and Neglected Nursing Home Residents (210)
Sylvia Taylor-Stein
Executive Director
Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,
2021 Sperry Avenue Suite 35
Ventura, CA 93003
T: 805.656.1986 ext 13
Fax: 805.658.8540
www.ombudsmanventura.org
a 501 (c) 3 non profit organization
Posted in Articles, California, Legislation, Letters of Support, Sacramento, Ventura County.
– August 7, 2009
Effects of Budget Cuts to Senior and Aging Programs
DOWNLOAD FACT SHEET
Effects of Budget Cuts to Senior and Aging Programs (318)
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
Posted in Articles, Budget Proposals, California, Legislation, Letters of Support, Sacramento, VCAAA, Ventura County.
– July 31, 2009
Senior Center Directors Forum re AB 392
View the handout re AB 392 that was distributed at the Senior Center Directors Forum. Congress Of Caliornia Seniors (222)
Posted in California, Legislation, Letters of Support, Sacramento.
– July 27, 2009
AB 392 Passes Senate Floor
Dear Friends and Fellow Ombudsmen,
As you may know by now, AB 392 passed the Senate, yesterday. I am in awe of the work that has been accomplished. It has been a true team undertaking and I feel privileged to be a member of the small funding group that has worked so hard since last October to get this rolling, and very blessed by all of you who stepped up and supported us in all the many ways you did along the way. It is not over yet, but we have come a long way together and I am very grateful for each and every one of you.
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
Sylvia Taylor-Stein
ExecutiveDirector
Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,
2021 Sperry Avenue Suite 35
Ventura, CA 93003
Posted in Budget Proposals, California, Legislation, Sacramento, Ventura County.
– July 17, 2009
Governor’s Budget Proposals Hit Hard on Health and Human Services
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.
Rank 4: Can perform a function, but only with substantial human assistance.
Rank 5: Cannot perform the function, with or without human assistance.
Rank 6: Paramedical Services Needed
- 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
The additional proposals would severely reduce or eliminate funding for mental health, developmental disability services, education, state parks, Cal grants, AIDS services, CALWORKS and several state-only Medi-Cal programs – and these are only a portion of the proposed cuts (summaries of the proposed cuts are available in pdf format at www.canhr.org under New Developments).
The Budget Conference Committee held a hearing on the proposed Health and Human Services cuts on May 27 and heard from numerous consumers and advocates. More hearings, not open for public comment, will be held over the next month, as the deadline for the budget is June 30. Meanwhile, state Controller John Chaing is calling on the legislators and the governor to finalize a budget agreement by June 15 to give him time to negotiate loans from Wall Street to cover the state’s operating costs.
If the intent is to turn California into a third world country – this might work. As the Sacramento Bee recently noted in an editorial, the governor’s proposed cuts “would leave California with the least support of its poor of any state in the nation and probably any government in the developed world.”
How can we provide services to the poorest of the poor; to our disabled citizens; to our elders who need care at home – without raising taxes? How can we even pretend to be a civilized state if we are not willing to be our “brothers and sisters keepers?”
While many legislators are aware of the devastating effect these cuts will have on real people, others of them have no idea and will resist increasing taxes until death. It is important to let your voice be heard.
Posted in Articles, Budget Proposals, California, Legislation, Sacramento.
– June 27, 2009
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