Some Florida families are gearing up for the elimination of home care services provided under the state’s PACE program, which will experience a funding cut to its Hillsborough County program after Governor Rick Scott vetoed the $1.3 million in funding.
Local home care provider Chapters Health System decided to close its business citing funding cuts, yet the state maintains the current program members will continue to receive services, according to a local Fox News report.
Various PACE programs nationwide provide home care assistance as well as transportation needs to senior residents, with the Florida program being one of them.
The budgetary restrictions could cut access to 100 patients in the county, according to a report by Tampa’s Fox News.
“Unfortunately, some of our participants may end up in a nursing home,” Chapters Health System COO Andrew Lutton told Fox News. “Nursing home care is much more expensive — than the kind of care we provide when patients stay in their own homes.”
Current slots in the program will remain filled and funded, the report notes, but three programs will be impacted statewide under the PACE program, which the governor said was not benefiting the state as a whole.
“Chapters Health Senior Independence made the business decision to discontinue effective August 31, 2013,” Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration said in a statement to Fox News. “We are disappointed in the business decision by Chapters to cease its operations and services. By confusing the fully funded existing slots with unfunded expansion slots, Chapters needlessly compounded concerns for recipients and providers.”
View the coverage on Fox News.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
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