Laura
05-02-2007, 10:31 PM
In need of home care? Hopefully, you didn't move to Florida! Why this isn't a national scandal on the level of Watergate, I'll never know!
Miami Herald Op-ed: Sick solution: Disabled Kids Pay for Fraud (http://www.miamiherald.com/454/story/86868.html)
Sick solution: Disabled kids pay for fraud
By Fred Grimm
May 1, 2007
Someone had to be punished for the agency's wasteful and arrogant
ways.
Money, by the millions, disappeared into a bureaucratic black
hole. The current deficit of $105 million is expected to be
followed by a $155 million shortfall next fiscal year. And no one
running Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities could quite
explain why.
The agency culture was about as open as the old East Germany. John
Hall, executive director of the Florida ARC (Association for
Retarded Citizens) said his advocacy group had to sue before APD
relinquished a death grip on public information.
The Legislature had demanded that APD adopt some modern managed
care and accounting practices. To no avail.
It was all too much. Waste. Lousy management. Inexplicable
accounting. Snooty attitude.
Punishing the Victims
Someone had to pay. And the Florida Legislature has decided just
who.
Lawmakers took their frustrations out on Floridians with Down
syndrome, with autism, with spina bifida, with cerebral palsy, and
other disabilities. Someone has to pay for the sins of the APD.
The 16 percent cut in appropriations will mean some special
punishment for the parents of disabled children who depend on
money funneled through the agency to fund home healthcare
services. "If you have 10 hours of home care cut to five, that
means parents working eight-hour jobs will have to quit their jobs
and stay home and take care of their kids," said Michael Messer,
president of ARC's South Florida chapter.
"It's just not right," he said Monday evening. Not that anyone in
Tallahassee was listening.
It's too early to be precise about how much the budget cuts will
affect those now getting home services, but it's a near-certainty
that the disabled Floridians on the waiting list for help are out
of luck. Some 15,000 are now on the list. The cuts, of course,
will coincide with an increase in the ever-growing number of
disabled folks in need of the services. The waiting list will only
grow more formidable.
But someone has to be punished.
Mysterious Logic
The logic behind the cuts in the APD's budget seems all the more
mysterious considering that for every 45 cents the state spends on
care for these disabled folks, the federal government pitches in
another 55 cents. "It's like every dollar we don't spend, we lose
another dollar," said Messer, his voice wavering between
bewilderment and anger. The home care system itself saves the
state money by eliminating the very expensive alternative of
housing the disabled in state institutions.
Gov. Charlie Crist inherited the APD mess from Jeb Bush, who
severed the agency from the Department of Children and Families
three years ago and created an organization with a lean, mean,
minimalist bureaucracy that would pay private contractors to
provide most of the home services. But the APD staff proved far
too lean to manage a $700 million budget. It hemorrhaged money.
Governor Mournful
Crist told reporters, "My heart goes out to the disabled and the
most vulnerable among us. I want to support those who need the
help, but I don't want to support fraud."
No one wants to support fraud. But the crackdown on APD coming out
of Tallahassee doesn't target fraudulent or incompetent or
arrogant bureaucrats.
Instead, kids with profound disabilities and wretched hardships
will feel the wrath. But, hey, someone has to pay.
Source: Miami Herald Media Company
__________________________________________________ ______________ :bash: A look at the rest of the Editorials Section reveals several stories in a similar vein, including one in which changing HMO policies threaten to cut Medicaid spending on care for people with serious mental illnesses. These people might be in a situation in which their state/local government orders them to take medications, and then denies them the drugs! It seems the most seriously ill schizophrenics are the ones in government jobs making these funding decisions!
Miami Herald Op-ed: Sick solution: Disabled Kids Pay for Fraud (http://www.miamiherald.com/454/story/86868.html)
Sick solution: Disabled kids pay for fraud
By Fred Grimm
May 1, 2007
Someone had to be punished for the agency's wasteful and arrogant
ways.
Money, by the millions, disappeared into a bureaucratic black
hole. The current deficit of $105 million is expected to be
followed by a $155 million shortfall next fiscal year. And no one
running Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities could quite
explain why.
The agency culture was about as open as the old East Germany. John
Hall, executive director of the Florida ARC (Association for
Retarded Citizens) said his advocacy group had to sue before APD
relinquished a death grip on public information.
The Legislature had demanded that APD adopt some modern managed
care and accounting practices. To no avail.
It was all too much. Waste. Lousy management. Inexplicable
accounting. Snooty attitude.
Punishing the Victims
Someone had to pay. And the Florida Legislature has decided just
who.
Lawmakers took their frustrations out on Floridians with Down
syndrome, with autism, with spina bifida, with cerebral palsy, and
other disabilities. Someone has to pay for the sins of the APD.
The 16 percent cut in appropriations will mean some special
punishment for the parents of disabled children who depend on
money funneled through the agency to fund home healthcare
services. "If you have 10 hours of home care cut to five, that
means parents working eight-hour jobs will have to quit their jobs
and stay home and take care of their kids," said Michael Messer,
president of ARC's South Florida chapter.
"It's just not right," he said Monday evening. Not that anyone in
Tallahassee was listening.
It's too early to be precise about how much the budget cuts will
affect those now getting home services, but it's a near-certainty
that the disabled Floridians on the waiting list for help are out
of luck. Some 15,000 are now on the list. The cuts, of course,
will coincide with an increase in the ever-growing number of
disabled folks in need of the services. The waiting list will only
grow more formidable.
But someone has to be punished.
Mysterious Logic
The logic behind the cuts in the APD's budget seems all the more
mysterious considering that for every 45 cents the state spends on
care for these disabled folks, the federal government pitches in
another 55 cents. "It's like every dollar we don't spend, we lose
another dollar," said Messer, his voice wavering between
bewilderment and anger. The home care system itself saves the
state money by eliminating the very expensive alternative of
housing the disabled in state institutions.
Gov. Charlie Crist inherited the APD mess from Jeb Bush, who
severed the agency from the Department of Children and Families
three years ago and created an organization with a lean, mean,
minimalist bureaucracy that would pay private contractors to
provide most of the home services. But the APD staff proved far
too lean to manage a $700 million budget. It hemorrhaged money.
Governor Mournful
Crist told reporters, "My heart goes out to the disabled and the
most vulnerable among us. I want to support those who need the
help, but I don't want to support fraud."
No one wants to support fraud. But the crackdown on APD coming out
of Tallahassee doesn't target fraudulent or incompetent or
arrogant bureaucrats.
Instead, kids with profound disabilities and wretched hardships
will feel the wrath. But, hey, someone has to pay.
Source: Miami Herald Media Company
__________________________________________________ ______________ :bash: A look at the rest of the Editorials Section reveals several stories in a similar vein, including one in which changing HMO policies threaten to cut Medicaid spending on care for people with serious mental illnesses. These people might be in a situation in which their state/local government orders them to take medications, and then denies them the drugs! It seems the most seriously ill schizophrenics are the ones in government jobs making these funding decisions!