Family Care Expansion (Still) Stalled

There’s a lot that made it into Gov. Walker’s initial draft of the 2013-15 biennial state budget, but one omission made staff and legislators at the Door County Government Center take notice.

The biennial budget contains no mention of allocating money towards the expansion of Family Care, the state system created in 1998 to increase access to long-term, non-nursing home care. While the 57 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties who currently have Family Care will continue operating under the system, counties like Door that don’t have the system will have to continue to wait to implement it.

“[The state] kind of promised in previous budget cycles that the ’13-15 budget would include it, but it’s not in the governor’s initial budget,” said Roger Tepe, the Deputy Director of Door County’s Human Services Department.

Susan Kohout, County Board Supervisor and Legislative Committee member. Photo by Len Villano.

The problem, according to Tepe, is that state legislators on the Joint Finance Committee, which holds the power to continue Family Care expansion, are nervous about the start-up costs associated with expanding the system.

But Tepe said several studies, some of which can be found at dhs.wisconsin.gov, show Family Care is far more cost-effective in the long run than the waiver system currently used by Door County. Because the new system asks counties to work together regionally, Family Care districts can get volume discounts on medical care and reduce Medicaid costs.

The main draw for the developmentally disabled, physically disabled, and elderly adults who use the state’s current Medicaid system, however, is the elimination of waiting lists for care.

The Pulse reported in Aug. that 183 Door County residents were being served by the county’s Medicaid-waiver program, and 110 people were sitting on the waiting list due to caps on the system. When Family Care is implemented, each county has to phase its wait list into the program over the course of three years. After that, anyone who shows up and qualifies for services is immediately screened and placed.

“If we don’t get [Family Care] in this budget, then we don’t get it for two years,” said County Board Supervisor and Legislative Committee member Susan Kohout. “And we continue to have hundreds of people on waiting lists, and we continue to lose money.”

The Door County Board of Supervisors passed and forwarded a resolution in January asking the state to put Family Care expansion funds into this biennium’s budget. Now that the governor’s budget has officially been released without the inclusion of those funds, Kohout said Door County government staff is working on other ways to press legislators on the issue and encouraging residents to contact their state representatives.

Roger Tepe, the Deputy Director of Door County’s Human Services Department. Photo by Len Villano.

“I don’t see anything that should be holding anybody up on this,” said Kohout.

Tepe said the Northeast Wisconsin Family Care District, which Door County is a part of, is also trying to push the populace to reach out to the state, but isn’t sure what sort of response they’ll receive.

“I don’t know what advocacy group is going to turn up and say our time is now, because these aren’t really people you’d find carrying signs in front of the capitol,” said Tepe. “They’re disabled, and they’re elderly. So they’ll continue to wait.”

Now that the state budget has been unveiled, it heads to the Joint Finance Committee. The committee will hold four public hearings to gather public input on the budget, but the dates and times of those hearings have not yet been set.

For more information on Family Care, see the article Family Care Expansion Stalled.