January 28, 2025 SHNS: Elder Care Faces Squeeze As Population Expands
By Alison Kuznitz
Criteria Tightening This Week For Community Care Program
“Elder services providers grappling with surging caseloads and funding deficits are bracing for new state directives that will curtail access to home care programs.
The Healey administration on Feb. 1 plans to tighten eligibility criteria for older adults enrolling in the state-funded Enhanced Community Options Program (ECOP), which serves frail individuals who clinically qualify for nursing homes but are able to receive intensive at-home care. By the start of March, the state will then impose a cap on the number of available ECOP slots, providers told the News Service.
Providers say state health officials have briefed them on program changes but are waiting for concrete details and guidance, known as “program instructions,” from the state, said Betsey Crimmins, executive director of Mass Aging Access, which represents nearly 30 so-called Aging Services Access Points and Area Agencies on Aging.”
Read the entire article: Elder Care Faces Squeeze As Population Expands by the State House News Service
January 23, 2025 DignityMA Media Release: ADVOCATES RAISE CONCERN ABOUT OLDER ADULTS BEING DENIED ACCESS TO STATE HOME CARE PROGRAM DUE TO BUDGET SHORTFALL
Budget for Executive Office of Aging and Independence Will Place At-Risk Elders on Waitlists for Needed Services
FY26 Budget Proposal as Presented Appears to Be Critically Inadequate
BOSTON –Dignity Alliance Massachusetts is expressing the strongest concern that the Healey-Driscoll Administration is not supporting the ongoing enrollment needs of the State Home Care Program as administered by the Executive Office of Aging and Independence. Dignity Alliance has been signaling financial distress of the State Home Care Program for over a year. Today we are learning that the program is implementing managed intake. Furthermore, on face value the Governor’s FY26 budget proposal is estimated to underfund the program by at least $45M.
Paul Lanzikos, Coordinator of Dignity Alliance Massachusetts and a former Secretary of Elder Affairs in the Dukakis Administration, questions if the Commonwealth’s budget priorities are properly aligned with public expectations if we are having to limit the ability of low-income elders with long-term care needs to access supports. “I am greatly concerned that the Administration’s response to the fact that there are more older adults in need of services is to reduce our long-standing social contract commitment to them. This seems to be grossly insensitive to the needs and concerns of the Baby Boomer generation, who, by virtue of the state taxes they were providing while they were at the peak of their careers, were supporting a broad-based program to be available to the generation ahead of them. I think it is time that we increase the transparency to the current planning and future vision of the state home care program so all interested parties have a clear understanding of who the Healey-Driscoll Administration is going to critically impact with today’s decisions.”
Peter Tiernan, Dignity Alliance member and a former CFO of Elder Affairs in the Romney, Patrick, and Baker Administrations, raises concerns about missed opportunities and the overall approach made. “I urge the Healey-Driscoll Administration to dust off a proposal that was submitted to CMS at the end of the Patrick Administration and then withdrawn by the Baker Administration. The fact of the matter is that 40% of state home care program members are also MassHealth members who are not enrolled in the Frail Elder Waiver. There is a substantial opportunity to follow approaches made in other states and modernize the Massachusetts State Home Care Program so it generates additional federal revenue. This program should be realizing at least $60m more per year in revenue than it currently is. Implementing such an initiative is hard work, but I would prefer to see the Healey-Driscoll Administration exhaustively pursue these revenue options before any individual is denied access to the State Home Care Program.”