Ruling due in Hazleton man’s carjacking case

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First Posted: 11/26/2013 In my travels as the CEO of Leading Age PA, I often speak to groups across the commonwealth about senior care services. I make it a point to ask people to raise their hands if they have made plans, such as long-term care insurance or savings to cover the cost of these services. I often receive confused looks.
Outside of nursing homes, most people don&#8217;t know what senior services are, how they can go about receiving them or how they&#8217;ll pay for them. That&#8217;s concerning when you consider that evidence shows more than 60 percent of all Pennsylvanians will need to access these services at some point in their lives.
This illustrates a problem we have in Pennsylvania: Seniors erroneously believe that government programs will take care of them when they need services. It&#8217;s especially a problem here, since we are one of the oldest states in the nation. Our over-85 population is increasing at 10 times the rate of the rest of the population, and the first of the baby boomers are rapidly approaching age 70.
As a result, our current care system, firmly rooted with the advent of Medicaid and Medicare in the mid last century, forces families to place their loved ones into inappropriate services because they cannot afford to pay the $4,000 to $9,000 a month it costs for the care settings they really need, let alone prefer, such as assisted living or personal home care. LeadingAge PA, an association of not-for-profit providers of senior services, is holding its first Senior Care Service Summits in locations all across Pennsylvania this fall, allowing our members and seniors to discuss this issue directly with policymakers and state legislators. A summit is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday at Meadows Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 4 East Center Hill Road, Dallas.
While there are a number of state associations representing specific services such as nursing homes, assisted-living providers and home health services, LeadingAge PA members provide a variety of options and know the importance of balancing all of these services. The goal of the summit is to answer this question: What if we envisioned a better future for how senior services could be delivered and funded?
For the past year, our board of directors has embarked on a mission to answer this question, and we look forward to sharing our findings during the summit.
In our envisioned future, people accessing senior services are living longer, healthier lives with greater purpose and meaning in their home environment, as they would define home. They achieve this because they&#8217;re able to easily self-navigate through a coordinated system of exceptional services. They can access those services where they need them, including, when possible, in their own homes &#8211; and they&#8217;ll be able to do it regardless of financial means. (To see a full copy of LeadingAge&#8217;s plan, NorthStar 2.0, please visit www.leadingagepa.org.)
Unfortunately, this is in stark contrast to what we currently have in Pennsylvania, especially for low- or limited-income seniors. Today, if someone needs around-the-clock supervision but can&#8217;t afford personal care or assisted living, that person will most likely be sent to a nursing home paid for by the Medicaid program. To be sure, nursing facilities are important and necessary, usually for post acute rehabilitation or during bouts of illness requiring 24 hour care by nurse, but they should never be confused with someone&#8217;s home.
Outdated state laws and regulations aren&#8217;t making matters any easier for our seniors. For example, regulations are threatening to take away the option of housing with services since regulations are being interpreted that if four or more people in a senior housing building get home health care, the entire building must be licensed as a personal care or assisted living facility.
We can do better. We must do better. Yet, year after year, state government kicks the proverbial can down the road.
The Legislature and governor&#8217;s office have commissioned numerous reports and assembled numerous advisory committees to &#8220;study&#8221; the problem. The reports could fill a room. Again this past spring, the Legislature directed the Joint State Government Commission to conduct yet another Long-Term Care Advisory Task Force.
Let&#8217;s hope that, this time, real reform results. It&#8217;s way past the time for more reports; we need to take action.

COMMENTARY: Ron Barth Can you afford senior services?