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Frequently Asked Questions:
What is in-home care?
Personal assistance service (PAS) is provided to persons who reside at home and have a medical necessity for assistance with activities of daily living. Services provided in the program include assistance with the following activities of daily living:
• bathing
• toileting
• mobility (including transferring from place to place)
• eating
• nutritional planning and meal preparation
• dressing
• personal hygiene and grooming
• exercise
Medical escort to a Medicaid-reimbursed service may be authorized in addition to the above activities when assistance is needed en-route or at destination.
Individuals who need help with activities of daily living may also receive help with the following:
• household tasks related to their living area
• food shopping
• laundry
What in-home services are currently available in Montana?
Montana currently has four options available for people in need of long-term care services and who wish to receive those services in their own homes. They are:
- Self-Directed Personal Assistace Services (SDPAS)
Under this program, in existence since 1995, consumers have total responsibility and flexibility over their own care. This includes managing a personal assistant’s work schedule, length of employment, and training.
A provider agency provides oversight of your self-directed personal assistance services. A provider agency is an organization that enrolls with the Department of Public Health and Human Services to oversee personal assistance services. You can choose which agency you use.
- Agency-Based Personal Assistance Services
Under the agency-based option for care, the person selects a qualified provider agency. The agency works with the person to establish the schedule for service provision and provides the trained staff necessary for the delivery of care. A nurse from the provider agency completes an on-site visit at least once every 180 days for supervision of care.
- Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
The Home and Community Based Services program (also known as the Medicaid Waiver program) is an enhancement of the basic personal assistance programs and covers services that are otherwise not covered covered under the state plan for in-home personal assistance services. Under this program people, who would otherwise be institutionalized, are more fully able to access services that greatly increase their ability to live in their own home and community rather than in a nursing home. The services are made available through the Department of Public Health & Human Services (DPHHS) and the Senior and Long Term Care Division (SLTC).
- Big Sky Bonanza Program
This is a program enhancement of the Self-Directed Personal Assistance Program and Home and Community-Based Services. The
Big Sky Bonanza program enables consumers on the HCBS waiver program,
with support through an Independence Advisor and Financial Manager,
to direct services formerly controlled by case managers, including
personal assistance services and other supports such as habilitation
aids, homemaking service, purchasing adaptive equipment and environmental
modifications, etc.
Is Summit ILC opposing I-159 because it is anti-union?
No. We do not oppose I-159 because we are anti-union, as some would lead you to believe, because we are not not anti-union. We have worked very closely with unionized labor organizations on numerous occassion and believe it is every employees right to organize should they choose to do so but we believe that it should be those workers who make that decision, not the union's. This initiative does not give workers that choice but instead, stipulates that "Individual home care providers may collectively bargain with the state, but only through a statewide union exclusively composed of individual providers, and they may not strike," thereby eliminating one of a workers most fundamental rights of choosing to unionize or not.
Is there a long waiting list for in-home personal assistance services as proponents of I-159 are leading us to believe?
No. Personal
Assistance Services is an entitlment service and therefore,
has no waiting list. Individuals, as long as they are financially
eligible, can also receive a 20
day temporary authorization of services paid
for by Medicaid while they await a full assessment and authorization
of their eligibility for services. The goal of the Personal Assistance
Services program is to prevent or delay nursing facility placement
by providing medically necessary, long-term maintenance or supportive
care in the home.
The only waiting list for any of the services listed
above is for the Home and Community-Based Services program, however,
I-159 would only be a personal assistance service and therefore, does
not even cover the array
of services offered by the HCBS program.
Furthermore, the waiting list for the HCBS program is not 1,100 people
as proponents are often expressing but rather, about 600.
More coming Soon
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
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