Wait lists for Indiana’s managed care program are having a “devastating” effect on older adults in need of assisted living and other services, according to one senior living association.
The Indiana Assisted Living Association joined Indiana state Rep. Carey Hamilton (D-Indianapolis) at a press conference recently to discuss how the state’s Medicaid waiver program for home- and community-based services is affecting older Hoosiers.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced in April that it was implementing a waiting list for the Aged and Disabled Waiver after reaching maximum capacity. The state recently split the Aged & Disabled waiver into two distinct programs: the PathWays for Aging program for adults aged 60 or more years, and the Health & Wellness Waiver for those aged 59 or fewer years.
The PathWays program provides an alternative to nursing facility admission for older adults. Waiver services can be used to assist people living in nursing facilities to return to community settings, including assisted living communities, or to help people remain in their own homes in the greater community.
INALA Executive Director Dan Kenyon said at the press conference that 13,000 Hoosiers are on waiting lists for services.
“The system has failed those 13,000 Hoosiers,” Kenyon said. “These are fellow Hoosiers who have lived, worked, paid taxes, raised families and saved what they could for retirement, only to have exhausted their funds simply due to living longer. These are folks who followed the rules, went through the system and trusted the state would meet its obligations.”
Although no legislation to address the issue is in the works at this time, INALA is calling for a legislative fix as well as for immediate relief funds to address the issue now.
Hamilton said that the state previously had programs to cover at-home care for medically complex Hoosiers, allowing older adults the freedom to access the care that best fit their needs, whether that was in an assisted living community or at home.
“The absurd reality is that telling a Hoosier that they are on a waitlist for assisted living could mean they are transferred to more expensive care at a nursing home, a move that is more expensive for taxpayers and very likely harmful to that person,” Hamilton said in a statement “Hoosiers cannot wait years to receive the services they need to be happy, healthy and age with dignity and comfort.”
