February 2010

Please join us at our next statewide meeting on Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 10:30-2:30 at the Chalgian & Tripp Law Office in East Lansing, 1019 Trowbridge Road (near the Trowbridge exit for I-496 and Route 127) (please note the new location).  And plan on joining us for our next meeting on Saturday, May 22 (same location at Chalgian & Tripp) as well.  Thanks to attorneys Doug Chalgian and Amy Tripp for their hospitality!  If you plan to attend the March meeting, please RSVP to Alison Hirschel at hirschel@lsscm.org or 517-394-2985 x231 by March 11.  We need your help. Join us!                                                                              

1.  Campaign accepting nominations for its Officers and Board –-Attention members! Nominations are now open for Campaign officers and board members.   At our March Board meeting, we will be electing a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and two advisors.  We will also be discussing at the Campaign meeting changing our by-laws to add a position as Vice-Chair. The term for each office runs until a new person is elected or until the officer feel she or she can no longer carry out the duties of the office. Elections are held every two years.  Board members often have short meetings before regular statewide meetings every other month and are in e-mail communication about important issues that arise between meetings.   This is an opportunity for you to step up and take part in guiding the Campaign by nominating someone or volunteering yourself as candidate.   If you nominate someone, please contact him or her to get permission to name them as a candidate.  For nominations or more information, please contact Carole Newburry at 269-353-6445, 4014 Old Field Trail, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 or cjnewb@att.net. 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Join Us Wednesday. March 10 for Campaign Day at the Capitol! – Campaign members will receive an Advocacy 101 training from Stephanie Johnson, a wonderful ally and lobbyist at Capitol Services, and then we’ll visit every legislator’s office to share information on the Campaign’s priorities and goals.  Please join us for this fun, interesting, and exceedingly important opportunity to educate legislators about pressing issues for long term care consumers.  This year, our message will focus on preserving the state’s cost-effective Medicaid funded programs (which are funded primarily by federal dollars and make a major contribution to the state’s economy), including home and community based care.  We will also be urging legislators to devise ways to raise revenues to maintain important programs for long term care consumers who cannot afford to lose existing services or benefits.  Because the state budget is so tight this year and some legislators are calling for devastating additional cuts, it is essential that we let our voices be heard on behalf of some of the most vulnerable Michiganians. To attend this event, you MUST RSVP to Alison Hirschel at 517-394-2985 x 231 or hirschel@umich.edu by March 5!

 

3.  Governor’s Proposed FY 2011 Budget Once Again Safeguards the MI Choice Home and Community Based Waiver Program but Some Legislators Calling for Deep Cuts – Governor Granholm released her FY 2011 Budget in early February.  Despite enormous budget pressures, the Governor recommended an 8% increase in funding for the MI Choice Waiver Program continuing the strong support she has always shown for home and community based care.  Nursing homes and the Home Help program also received increases. 

          Programs funded by the Office of Services to the Aging (including meals, home care, care management, caregiver programs and access services) face 8% cuts on top of the significant cuts for funding for services in the past year.   Many legislators are calling for much more significant cuts in the state budget including home and community based care. 

           The Senate Department of Community Health Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Medicaid budget on February 25 at 3 pm in the Boji Tower, 124 W. Allegan Street in Lansing.  A hearing on the OSA budget is scheduled on March 4 at 3 pm in the same location.  Consumers who testify about the importance of Medicaid and aging services in their lives can be very effective and the hearings are open to the public.  Testimony need only be 2-5 minutes long and consumers are encouraged to speak plainly about their experiences. If you cannot attend, be sure to call your state legislators or write or email them to let them know that you support home and community based care and full funding for long term care services. 

4. CMS issues new Special Focus Facility List Identifying Most Troubled Nursing Homes--The federal government compiles a “Special Focus Facility” list that identifies what it considers to be the most troubled nursing homes in each state.  These facilities have more violations, more serious violations, and patterns of violations that persist for longer periods of time than other facilities.  Once homes are placed on the Special Focus Facility list, state surveyors inspect them at least twice a year (twice as often as other facilities are inspected on average) and monitor their progress remedying their citations.  Only when a facility has had sustained improvement for a period of one year can it “graduate” from the list   In Michigan, Riverview Manor in Three Rivers and Sorrento Care Center in Detroit have recently been added to the Special Focus Facility list.   Royalton Manor in St. Joseph, which has been on the list for 6 months, is identified as having failed to improve while the Heartland HCC facility in Kalamazoo has shown improvement after 20 months on the list.  Finally, South Haven Nursing and Rehab in South Haven has “graduated” after showing sustained improvement.

          As we have noted before, the federal government maintains an excellent website that gives you a tremendous amount of information on almost every nursing home in the country.  Go to http://www.medicare.gov/Default.asp, scroll down the page, and click on “Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area.”  The website includes information on the last three inspections of the homes, quality measures, staffing levels, fire safety records, and other information about the homes.  You can compare homes to other homes in the state and compare their statistics to state and national averages.  In addition, the website gives each home between one and five stars for overall quality, health inspections, staffing and quality measures.  While some of this information is self-reported by the facilities and not audited by the government, the website is still a useful tool when you are searching for the nursing home that can best meet your needs.

5.The Campaign Needs Volunteers to Help its Southeast Michigan Chapter or to Create Other Chapters Across the State—The Campaign has many members in Southeast Michigan and has always had a chapter in that region of the state.  In recent years, the volunteers who have devoted so much energy to that chapter have also had many other obligations and challenges.  We are now seeking help to run that chapter and eager to hear from volunteers who want to create other chapters across the state.  Please contact Alison Hirschel at 517-394-2985 x 231 or hirschel@lsscm.org if you are interested in helping with the Southeast Michigan chapter or starting a new one elsewhere. Our Kalamazoo chapter is still going strong under the guidance of Carole Newburry and John Weir but always appreciates new members and new energy.  Please contact Carole at cjnewb@att.net or (269) 353-6445.  Paul VanWestrienen also runs a chapter/family council at the Oceana County Medical Care Facility.  To join Paul’s group, you can contact him at pbvanwest@copper.net.                        .

 

6.  THE CAMPAIGN THANKS OUR generous donors – The following individuals have donated recently:  Jim Bebermeyer, J. Herbert Cox , Raymond and Maureen Mickus, Elaine Winegarden, Gerts Lorencis and Eva Redwine.  Thanks!   Please continue to send your tax deductible donations to: Michigan Campaign for Quality Care, c/o Paul vanWestrienen, Treasurer, 359 Park Ave., Parchment, MI 49004.  Your donations help pay for our mailings, brochures, and the information we distribute to consumers and policy makers.  The Campaign has no paid staff, no office expenses, and virtually no overhead, so you know your contributions are spent wisely and well on the materials we need to communicate effectively!