|
Getting the Government
to Pay Family Members For Eldercare at
Home
By:
Thomas Day
 Some
44.4 million adult caregivers -- or 21% of the U.S. adult population
-- provide unpaid care to seniors or adults with disabilities,
according to a 2004 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving in
Bethesda, Md. On average, those caregivers provide 21 hours of care a
week and the average length of time spent providing care is 4.3 years.
Over the years, the National Care Planning Council has received many
public requests. A number of these requests have been from family
caregivers who had to cut back on their employment or even quit their
jobs in order to take care of one or both of their parents. Invariably
these caregivers assume there is a government program that will pay
them to provide this care. Only recently have we become aware of some
programs that will pay family members. These programs are not
publicized and the public is largely unaware of them or how to receive
them.
Money
Follows the Person—MFP (Self-Direction in Care):
In recent years, some state Medicaid programs have been experimenting
with the idea of providing a budget to elderly Medicaid recipients.
This money can be used to hire family or friends to provide care at
home. Most of these programs are very limited, and there are waiting
lists for them. Also, the amount of money available may not always be
enough to compensate a family member to provide full-time care in lieu
of maintaining employment.
The attitude of our government is quickly changing and there is now a
new initiative to provide income for family caregivers. The Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005 allocated $1.4 billion -- the largest
demonstration grant in Medicaid history -- to a program called "Money
Follows the Person." This program is designed to transition
individuals receiving Medicaid and who are living in institutions,
back into the community. In 2007, 31 states received their portion of
the grant money pie to begin demonstration programs offering more
choice in care besides an institution. Most of these state programs
offer a concept called "self-direction" which allows a budget to be
established by Medicaid for the care recipient. Self-direction allows
the care recipient to spend this money hiring any caregiver of choice
and this typically includes friends and family.
Unfortunately, this is not a widespread benefit for elderly Medicaid
recipients and in addition only applies to bringing elderly people out
of institutions and back into the community to receive care. Over the
next five years, only 34,395 elderly care recipients nationwide are
expected to be transitioned to community-based care through this
program. Even though this represents a fraction of the elderly, who
over the next five years are expected to receive Medicaid services in
institutions, there is still a possibility for the family to apply for
one of these programs and to have the government pay for their care
services.
See Page #2: Government to Pay
Family
About the
Author:
The National Care Planning Council and its affiliated members are
dedicated to helping the American public recognize the need for long
term care planning and to helping implement that planning. Planning
for long term care is important. To learn about The National Care
Planning Council and long term care visit our website at
http://longtermcarelink.net
Article Source:
http://www.ArticleBiz.com
Webpage by Paul Susic MA Licensed
Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate
|
