The first article is from the Clarksburg Exponent, and the second is from the Hunington Herald Register.

In-home healthcare rules will be focus of hearings

By Troy Graham

Groups that work with disabled and the elderly say sweeping changes need to be made to the laws governing in-home health-care assistance to make it easier for patients who want to live at home.

"Most of the services are geared toward people being institutions, not in their own homes," said Ken Ervin, state coordinator for ADAPT, a program for the disabled.

After a May protest by ADAPT at the Bureau of Senior Services in Charleston, the state is listening.

The state Department of Health and Human Resources agreed to host a series of six public hearings, including one from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn Thursday, to gather information from patients and their families, as well as home-health employees and nurses.

"We got the ears of the people we needed to get," Ervin said.

In-home assistance is paid for by the Medicaid Waiver program. The program is up for review this year. The state must write new regulations for the program and submit them to the federal government by Oct 1.

Now, with the hearings, the thousands of West Virginians who rely on in-home services will be able to tell the state what kind of changes they think need to be made, said Ervin and Jan Rieger, director of the NWVCIL.

Some of the changes are centered around basic concerns, Rieger said. For example, patients do not have the option to choose their provider or homemaker. Homemakers often do intimate tasks, such as bathing and grooming, Rieger said.

"It only seems appropriate that they have the opportunity to interview their homemaker," she said.

In addition, homemakers are allowed to take their patients to the doctor, but not the gym., Rieger said.

The state isn’t "aware of the little problems," she said.

The groups are also hoping to address larger concerns at the hearings.

ADAPT is calling for the creation of a committee of waiver users to review all program policies, quarterly evaluations of providers and penalties for providers who violate the civil rights of their clients.

ADAPT is also asking for emergency access to care. Getting approval from the waiver program can take two to four days, when some patients need immediate assistance, Rieger said.

"Without that service they could spend two, three days in bed without even being taken to the bathroom," she said.

Meetings to address Medicaid waivers

By Nicole Kennedy

Some people with disabilities are clamoring for more control in the Medicaid system that serves them and the WVDHHR has agreed to listen.

The department will host a series of six public meetings across the state about the Medicaid waiver program. One of those hearing will be from 3-6 pm Sept. 1 at the Best Western Gateway Inn in Barboursville.

"The meeting is set up to discuss problems," said Frances McElrath, who works in the waiver office. Agency officials then will "input all the information and then...sit down and decide how to make things better."

The Medicaid waiver program is a federal and state program that provides money to certain agencies. Those agencies then use the money to serve local senior citizens and adults with disabilities.

In May, members of ADAPT WV, a Morgantown-based advocacy group for people with disabilities, protested outside the department’s Bureau of Senior Services. At that protest, ADAPT requested the agency host public hearings on the Medicaid waiver program.

"We don’t have control over our basic needs," said Ken Ervin, of ADAPT. "We don’t have control of our own basic rights. Many times, the agencies control what they do, when they do it."

For example, an agency might provide transportation to the dentist, but not to a friend’s house.

"It’s focused on medical needs, but what about the social needs, the holistic needs of the individual ," said Jan Rieger, executive director of the NWVCIL.

People with disabilities also want more input into decisions about who provides their care.

"We don’t have any control of who comes into our homes," Ervin said. "The agency chooses. For the most part, people aren’t able to interview the people who comes into their homes. That’s like not being able to interview your babysitter or a boss not being able to interview employees."