GOVERNOR DISSES DISABLED - REP. HUDSON PROVIDES SOLUTION

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Forwarding: Please see the two yellow highlighted paragraphs below.

GOVERNOR DISSES DISABLED - REP. HUDSON PROVIDES SOLUTION

Governor Takes Bad Advice and Cuts Funding to the Developmentally DisabledTallahassee, FL

Governor is outraged that a government agency is $170 million over budget. He orders a 15% cut to providers. Little does he know his current advisers are the very people who bungled the budget and created problem. The deficit is not a recent event but is a result of adding over 5,000 individuals to the waiver since 2006 without adequate funding. In addition, funding levels have decreased over the past 5 years while APD administrative costs have doubled. The deficit was not created by providers. They do not determine funding levels, do not approve enrollees, do not determine services rates, and do not establish units of service. All services have been deemed medically necessary and prior authorizations are approved by the state before providers can be reimbursed for their services. Providers or consumers should not be expected to absorb these cuts.

Now the Governor is in for a bigger surprise.

Prior to the 15% cut that was announced, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities had already cut provider rates (which include overhead) down to solo rates (which do not include overhead). That means his cuts are significantly greater.

As a result of this action, his cuts were effectively doubled in 19 of the 27 waiver services, and therefore equivalent to a 30%-40% cut. Both are unsustainable and will put the safety and welfare of the most vulnerable and victimized Floridians in dire jeopardy. Several providers have already given the 30 days notice required, stating their intention to close group homes and other programs. The state will then be forced to place those developmentally disabled individuals into the very institutions they have worked years to close.

APD claims that individual supports or cost plans were not cut, but APD sent notification that all consumers including Consumer Directed Care (CDC+) plans and Family Supported Living (FSL) waivers must cut support plans by 15%. In addition, providers are paid out of the individual’s cost plan so effectively all cost plans were cut.

While the reductions which took effect April 1st will reduce the state general revenue funding by $12.2 million over a 90 day period, it will result in a loss of an additional $22.6 million federal medicaid match funding. Based on national Medicaid calculations, the cuts will also result in the loss of 1,278 jobs.

In large part took this action because inaccurate information was supplied to him by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. APD claims that cutting provider rates was the 'easiest' way to fix the deficit problem, and assured the Governor and the Legislature that it would not trigger litigation or consumer appeals. APD indicated the rate cuts have the "least impact on clients and insures their health and safety while still significantly addressing the deficit in the most expeditious manner". These erroneous conclusions by APD continue to drive bad decisions made by lawmakers on behalf of the agency. No matter how you spin it, DD services will be cut, staffing ratios will bring providers out of compliance, and our most vulnerable will suffer.

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities has long lacked effective management or an understanding of their own budget. They have been without effective leadership and in 2008 claimed implementation of the 'tier system' would save money. Hence the legislature took APD's advice and decreased their funding by the anticipated savings the tiers would generate. While the providers advised against it, implementation of the tiers created an enormous deficit, only to be multiplied by the litigation costs that followed. Consequently, more funding was needed to fund the loopholes in the new tier system and the more than six thousands legal appeals that resulted, causing an even greater deficit than originally existed.

The Governor is taking advice from his new Policy and Budget Director, Jane . is the former Director of APD appointed by Charlie Crist. The Senate refused her confirmation because of her own admission in public testimony that she did not understand the budget. should consider appointing someone to lead the agency that understands both the waiver budget and the service delivery models. Instead, he is making life and death decisions based upon flawed administrative decisions and an Inspector General’s budget report that received its source information from the same incompetent agency.

People with disabilities are the most vulnerable people in Florida. They should not suffer because of an agency that lacks understanding of the system and is without leadership of a Director. The Governor is attempting to fix this deficit, caused not by the providers but by the very people he is taking advice from, and doing it on the backs of the very people this agency should be serving. There is a waiting list of almost 20,000 people in need of services from APD.

The Florida House of Representatives, specifically Rep. Matt Hudson, Chair of the Human Services Appropriations Committee has covered this year’s deficit in his proposed budget. In addition he has identified additional funding that will actually increase next year’s budget. This was a very difficult task, and unfortunately the Senate has not yet concurred with the House on this proposed solution. Presumably the reason is because Rep. Hudson shifted funding from four cancer research programs, the and Esther King Biomedical Research Program, the G. "Bill" Bankhead, Jr. and Coley Cancer Research Program, and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. These funds came from state cigarette surcharge revenues. Rep. Hudson determined that the developmentally disabled were a greater priority than the four cancer research centers. He has taken a terrible beating from the powerful groups backing those organizations and from both his democrat and republican colleagues. Rep. Hudson should be commended for his decision to fund a population that has an exploding population and no recurring source of revenue. He realizes that it will only cost taxpayers more in the long run since government has a duty, and elected officials have taken an oath, to protect the welfare and safety of citizens who cannot protect themselves.

The hasty action of the Governor has created an emergency that does not exist. The House budget offers a viable solution. The Governor and the Senate should adopt the House plan, fund a realistic solution, and spare our most vulnerable developmentally disabled citizens the compounded stress and burden of budget cuts, pain, and anguish they are faced with year after year. Their afflictions cause enough difficulty and adversity to last their entire lifetime.

Source: FFDD News

Date: April 3, 2011 "Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way." -Abraham Lincoln