Why does Summit ILC oppose I-159?

Isn't Summit an Advocate for in-home services for people with disabilities? Absolutely!! Summit has played a key role in the development of consumer-directed personal assistance services in Montana. First with the establishment of the self-directed personal assistance services program in 1995 and more recently in 2006, with the Big Sky Bonanza program that allows advanced consumer direction of personal assistance and home and community-based services.

Since 1997, Summit has been as provider of Medicaid-funded self-directed personal assistance services in seven counties of Western Montana. We have also been strong advocates for improving long-term care services in Montana.

We oppose I-159 because:

• The "individual provider" program would duplicate existing services.  Since 1995, Montana has been offering quality, consumer-directed, in-home care services to assist people with disabilities and our seniors to continue living independently in their homes and community of choice through the SDPAS program. The SDPAS program already allows consumers to direct their own care, including hiring, firing and supervising their caregivers through a co-employment relationship with provider agencies. Click here for more information on available services.

• The "individual provider" program would be harmful to consumers.  It would expose them to more risk for exploitation, abuse and neglect because it does away with the provider agencies and the oversight and accountability functions they perform in the SDPAS program. The “individual provider” program places the consumers in the role of employer, taking on the risks and liabilities that accompany having employees. The state would be required to serve as a fiscal agent for consumers for payment of wages, filing taxes and other administrative functions, but consumers would still hold the liability for complying with wage and hour laws, workers compensation regulations, etc. Something that is currently the responsibility of provider agencies. Click here for more information on problems with the individual provider model.

• I-159 is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a well-funded international union with 1.9 million members. SEIU developed this ballot initiative totally on its own accord, with no consideration for input from the disability community, the aging network, the personal assistance provider agencies, personal assistants, case managers, or the state officials who administer Montana's long-term-care programs. This unilateral attempt to make significant changes in our state's long-term-care services is unacceptable.  Montana stakeholders have a right to be involved in the planning and development of new service options, and must be at the table when decisions are made.  There must be NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US!!

• The primary purpose of I-159 is to unionize the personal care workforce without giving that workforce the opportunity to vote on whether they want to or not.  The initiative compels individual providers to join the union and requires collective bargaining between the state and the union to determine the "individual providers' wages, hours, working conditions, training, workforce sustainability, and other benefits..."  But consumers have absolutely no input into this collective bargaining process, let alone consumer control.  As the employer of individual providers, consumers have the right to have meaningful involvement in determining the mandatory training requirements and conditions under which their caregivers would work.  In this arrangement the workers do not get to choose whether they want to form a union, and the employers (consumers) have no say in the collective bargaining process.  So much for both employee and employer rights! Click here to read more on our position of employees' right to organize.

• The estimated cost for I-159 is $2.6 million the first year, with an increase to $7 million a year in five years.  Yet these increased costs do not go towards better wages and benefits for caregivers, or more services for consumers, they go towards increased administrative costs for the state. There is no money attached to this initiative to get people out of nursing homes, or to "rebalance" Montana's long-term-care system by shifting funds out of the nursing homes budget into home and community-based services. Additional money should be spent improving existing services, not developing another model that duplicates services already available.

• The mandatory training and background check requirements of I-159 would take away consumer control.  In the current SDPAS program, consumers have the choice, ability, and the responsibility to choose and train their caregivers to meet their own individual needs. Personal assistants who work as individual providers would be required to complete mandatory training, background check and certification requirements each year under I-159, regardless of their years of experience providing personal care.  Often times, consumers utilize family members or friends as caregivers in the SDPAS program who typically do not work for other consumers.  They have been trained by consumers to meet consumers’ unique needs.  This new one-size fits all, cookie-cutter approach to training caregivers means that consumers will have to spend additional time retraining their own caregivers to meet their own personal needs.

Summit Independent Living Center, Inc.
AGAINST I-159
P.O. Box 3184
Missoula, MT 59806
406-728-1630
Mike Mayer, Treasurer
Summit is an advocacy and resource center for people with disabilities
as well as an in-home, self-directed personal assistance program provider.

This page was last updated on June 30, 2008