Committee does not hear amendment to pause changes to caregiver program
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The House Ways and Means Committee did not take up an amendment to pause implementing changes to a caregiver program for families with sick children.
If the bill goes through as it is currently written, the Attendant Caregiver Program could face significant cuts starting on July 1.
Currently, Indiana families with sick children can apply to become their child’s paid caretakers using current Indiana Medicaid waiver rules through this program.
It is funded through the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) using Medicaid funding, but plans to drastically scale it back are on the table due to a forecasted budget deficit.
These parents are trained and employed through an agency and are upset with the proposed plans saying this will leave many to make impossible choices.
Olivia Ruzic has a medically fragile 3-year-old son with 27 diagnoses all stemming from a genetic disorder. As a result, he needs round-the-clock care.
She said the attendant caregiver program pays her and her husband an hourly wage allowing them to both stay home and provide care. If it is scaled back and one of them returns to work, she fears they will be unable to find a nurse for her son because of a shortage of skilled caretakers.
“You can either switch to a daily stipend of $50 a day under something called ‘Structured Family Caregiving’ or you can transition your child care to another nurse or another attendant care worker but the problem is there are no other workers,” Ruzic said.
Ruzic said her case worker recommended 80 hours of paid caretaker time and FSSA approved it.
She said there were no safeguards at the state level to cap hours or thoroughly screen who was approved for the program.
“We had no idea as families and neither did the agencies that hired us that FSSA was auto-approving hours,” Ruzic said. “Now they’re saying that families are abusing the system and agencies approved those hours when really it was their mismanagement.”
Ruzic understands the need for fiscal responsibility but said if families are forced off of this program they could use Medicaid to fund in-home nurses who will likely be paid at an hourly rate higher than parents.
She said some families might be forced to institutionalize their children.
“And it saves them a lot of money because a nurse makes what, $30, $35, $40 an hour and I’m only making $14 an hour,” Ruzic said. “It seems like such a great thing for the child and for the parent.”
Ruzic said at-home care has kept her son healthy. He has an autoimmune disorder and the constant rotation of nurses and germs from other homes kept her son in the hospital when they utilized nurses.
Now he is healthier and his mom said he is using fewer Medicaid dollars by staying out of the hospital.
Republican Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch is asking for answers from FSSA including if there are enough caretakers for pediatric patients and if a tier system has been considered.
Many Democrats are against this change as well.
