Long-term care debated

Two bills allowing Utahns to receive long-term care at home received very different legislative treatment Monday.

A Senate committee killed HB249, which would have required lawmakers, when making their annual budget priorities, to consider funding for programs that provide in-home or community-based care for the elderly or disabled.

Sponsoring Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, said it was clear the bill was "going down in flames" after members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee expressed concerns that HB249 subverted the existing budget process by putting preference for in-home care into statute.

The irony with the argument, Hutchings said, is lawmakers being concerned the bill would limit their choices when Utahns' choices are limited every day by existing policies.

"We're telling people in the state of Utah: 'You will go into a nursing home,"' he said. "It's not about a budget meeting, it's not about an issue of finances. It's about telling grandma, 'Grandpa's already dead, you're the only one left, and in order to get help you're going into a nursing home. And if you don't like it, tough.'"

Meantime, the state Senate Monday afternoon unanimously approved a measure that would award nearly $400,000 to the Utah Department of Health for financial assistance to Medicaid patients participating in home- or community-based long-term care.

Current health department policy follows the federal government's requirement that long-term care be delivered in institutions such as nursing homes. The state has received permission from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow some Medicaid recipients to remain in their homes. To receive one of the few waivers, however, qualified Utahns must first live in a nursing home for 90 days.

Last August, protesters gathered outside the health department to criticize the policy, which they claimed stripped people of their independence and would force them to lose their homes during the 90-day institutionalization period.

Should the health department receive the OK to develop a new program to provide long-term services at home or in other, community-based settings, SB189, sponsored by Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, would give the department money to help participants pay costs associated with their care.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com