MCSSA ADULT AND HEALTH SERVICES COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MARCH 17, 2008 MEETING
MCSSA OFFICE
Those Participating County District
In Person:
Shelley Jipson-Lomax MCSSA
By Phone:
Eileen Rau Isabella V
I. Meeting
Called to Order at
II. Disposition
of Minutes of
A. Agenda Udpated. Dale MacDonald moved to accept the agenda as
amended. Seconded. Motion carried.
III. Reports
A. DHS Central Office
B. DCH Central Office
Kay said
C. MCSSW
Kay saw a link to the New York
Times article “Many Doctors, Many Tests, No Rhyme or Reason” that
Bonnie faxed an article on American health care. 88% of people who make under $50,000 a year are unable to afford health care in retirement. 81% are being bankrupted by medical costs due to an illness or accident (under $55,000 income.)
D. MCSSA
Mel testified last Thursday and highlighted some of our priorities, including adult services. He talked about baby boomers and how it is already starting to “rain” on us. The trouble is that the department has put such little emphasis on adult services, with other services like children’s services being put as the priority, adult services becomes a low priority.
Kay said she talked to Director Ahmed about adult services and his response was “I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it because you’re the first person who’s brought it up in the six months I’ve been here.” Kay recognizes we’re a huge agency, but had she been asking about a small, non-descript part of the department, she would understand his reaction.
Eileen talked with her Representative Bill Caul about adult services and she truly believes that because we put so much emphasis on children’s services, adult services has kind of been let slide. Baby boomers are going to be faced with a lot of problems that people haven’t faced before.
Adult services
goes on the
Mel felt the Mid-Year Conference was a success. Fritz counted 26 out of 38 senators at the luncheon. Kay said that not having attended the legislative conference before, she wasn’t sure how it stacked up to others.
III. Unfinished Business
A. Health Legislation
1. HB 5577 – Clarifies and utilizes consistently the definition of certain home care agencies and services. Biggest changes are on pages 1, 2, and 3; the rest is mostly clean up. Defines a home health agency, home medical equipment, durable med equipment. Kay said there doesn’t seem to be a reason that we wouldn’t support it. Kay said it looks like it’s putting some structure into these definitions. She said it seems to make sense to have it defined so there is no question as to what falls under home health equipment. There’s been no analysis yet. Mel suggested that we sit on it until we get an analysis. Tabled.
IV. New
Business
A. Adult Legislation
1. SB 1116 – Provides
for forfeiture of benefits for conviction of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of
an elderly individual. Companion to HB 5727. This is about
regulations for an inheritance. If you are a felon or convicted of killing
someone, you cannot inherit money from them, including insurance policies. Also wanting to include people who have been convicted of abuse,
neglect or exploitation. Kay said they’ve seen a few instances of that
with their
2. SB 1163 – Revises definition of "adult foster care facility," regarding amendment
to PA 218 in definition of adult foster care home. Dale said that it was
difficult to determine pros and cons. His recommendation is to get additional
info from sponsor.
3. HB 5834 – Modifies
appropriations to support Medicaid expenditures for hospital services and
therapy. Amendment to the public health code that has to do with assessing
fees and other assessments and quality assurance assessment. There is a
formula depending on the type of facility that can be used to get matching
dollars from the feds. Legislation seems to take the amount of money that is
collected under quality assessment under hospitals and give it back to
IV. Adjournment
at
Respectfully submitted,
ADULT & HEALTH SERVICES COMMITTEE
MEETING OF
AGENDA
I.
Call to order at
II.
Disposition of the minutes of
A. Agenda update
III. Reports
A. DHS Central Office
B. DCH Central Office
C. MCSSW
D. MCSSA
E. AAA Association
IV. Unfinished
Business
A. Adult Business
1. SB 1163
B. Health Business
C.
Health Legislation
1. HB 5577
2. HB 5834
V. New Business
A. Adult Legislation
1. HB 5889
2. HB 5894
B. Health Legislation
VI. Adjournment