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PENNSYLVANIA: More People Opting For In-Home Care Sunday February 29, 2004 PITTSBURGH (AP) A program that gives older adults the option to receive in-home care rather than live in a nursing home has helped Rosemarie McCrory and thousands of others return their lives to normal. With as many as 10,000 residents age 60 and older enrolled in the Pennsylvania Department of Aging program, it continues to rise in popularity. Partially funded by the federal government, the use of the waiver program has nearly doubled in the last three years. Jack McCrory, for one, wasn't happy with the care his mother received when she had to stay in nursing homes following hospital stays. But he wanted to supplement the care he and other family members were providing Rosemarie McCrory, who is wheelchair bound from Parkinson's disease. Rosemarie McCrory participates in the waiver program, allowing her family to get help from an aide three evenings a week and on weekends. ``I couldn't be happier, because she's being cared for here, not just checked on twice a shift,'' Jack McCrory, who's also Penn Hills' assistant police chief, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for its Sunday edition. ``And it gives me a break, because taking care of somebody all the time is very stressful.'' The waiver program is designed to give people more options while allowing the state to pay less than half on home care as it does for nursing home reimbursements, according to state officials. The federal government has increasingly granted states waivers to cover in-home care as an alternative to nursing home care. The federal government covers about half the cost of the state's program, which has nearly doubled in size in the last three years and could grow by another 30 percent under Gov. Ed Rendell's 2004-05 state budget. That would mean 3,500 more participants and $60 million in additional funding. As interest in the waiver program grew, the number of patients at nursing homes also dropped by more than 5,000 over five years to more than 82,500 in March 2003. The state Public Welfare Department is also rejecting most facilities' requests to add beds eligible for government reimbursements, thus limiting nursing home expansion. But the shift from nursing homes to in-home care is due to Pennsylvanians' preferences, not government manipulation, said Andrew Major, the director of long-term care programs for the Public Welfare Department. ``By and large, our consumers have indicated that if they had the opportunity, they would spend as much time at home as they could, and age in place,'' Major said. ``From that perspective, we're trying to provide them more opportunities. ... I wouldn't say if more facilities close, that's good. It's just a function of demand.'' But some worry about the shift and the quality of care that's being provided by private businesses contracted by county aging agencies. Nursing homes are regulated in a more rigorous manner than businesses that provide in-home care, said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association. In-home care agencies that provide medical care must undergo Pennsylvania Department of Health licensing and inspections. Those that provide non-medical care are excluded from state regulation, although county aging agencies have guidelines for those providers, including criminal background checks. ``One of the biggest challenges is how you monitor home care,'' said Anne Kelly, the executive director of the advocacy group Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging. ``You have workers going into homes without supervisors looking over their shoulder. We just hope that seniors, if they don't like the quality of care they're getting, are going to speak out.'' Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com References: State Waiver's Aid Helps Seniors Avoid Nursing Homes http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04060/279011.stm Pennsylvania Caregiving Services http://caregiverpa.psu.edu/careinfo/careservices.php CaregiverPA - Older Adults Who Do Not Live at Home http://caregiverpa.psu.edu/careinfo/serv_nothome.php Pennsylvania DPW Services Available http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/general/hacbbrocMDW.asp SOURCE: The Associated Press / KDKA - TV http://kdka.com/panews/PA--Home-CareExpansio-dn/resources_news_html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn