Oppose Legislature's Medicaid cuts

Editor,

The Montana state Legislature is proposing to cut almost 100 million dollars from Medicaid health care services. A majority of these cuts will impact essential personal care services for our fellow Montanans who are elderly or low-income adults, and children with disabilities.

The Department of Public Health and Human Services and the governor’s office are supporting cuts to these services basing their decision on unspent service dollars in 2016, which appear to be “excess.” What DPHHS is failing to consider is the staggering number of Medicaid recipients not receiving care because Medicaid reimbursement rates and wages for direct care workers are so low it isn’t possible to hire nurses and caregivers. This leaves hundreds of children and adults who are authorized for services not receiving care; leaving funding unspent.

The Legislature also recently voted not to fund Direct Care Worker wages. The failure to provide adequate and necessary funding for nursing and caregiving wages means we have tens of thousands of hours of unstaffed nursing shifts across the state. Not only do we have a 43 percent turnover in our nursing staff, a minimum of 10 additional full-time nursing staff would be required to fill the hours which have been authorized by the state to care for those in need.

While we will continue to provide services to the best of our ability within these funding and staffing constraints, we fear further funding restrictions will mean we cannot continue to provide the level or amount of nursing services required by children with disabilities in our state.

Consumer Direct Care Network was started in Montana in 1990 and has since expanded to 14 states across the U.S., providing Medicaid and Medicare services. Nowhere else in our network do we find the staffing shortages as egregious as here in Montana. We are committed to our home state, our employees here, and the caregivers and participants we serve.

Please contact your legislators today. Urge them to support increased DCW wages and vote against the Medicaid budget cuts proposed in House Bill 2.

Bill Woody Owner, Consumer Direct Care Network

Missoula