This bill is flawed and the reason I say it is flawed is because of the following issues.
1. An Agency is not suited to provide the best services to a Consumer!
WHY? Because the Agencies that currently exist are threatened by Solo Waiver Support Coordination Providers. They are threatened because SOLO Providers will go out on their own and take consumers.....which only constitute PROFIT to the Agency.
WHY? Because Agencies are ran by WSCs who may have started as a SOLO and realize it is HARD to do. However they didn't want to work as hard so they hire Support Coordinators at very reduced rates to do the work that they themselves used to do. Take a Look at any JOB posting for a WSC online and you will see the rate is around $30k to $40k starting pay. At $30k the Agency will make profit of about $43k or possibly more on a full 43 caseload.
SO! So to protect themselves they HIDE their Policies and Procedures documents, hoard and steal their employees training files and tell their employees how to operate and many times it is ONLY their opinion or interpretation of the regulations....and many times it is outdated and the Agency does not always keep up to date with the newest regulations.
2. The legislative intent of the Bill is do do exactly what is already spelled out in the iBudget Waiver handbook.
To enable the state to provide a systematic approach to service oversight for persons providing care to individuals with developmental disabilities, it is the intent of the Legislature that the agency work in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to ensure that waiver support coordinators have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary
Florida Senate - 2020 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
Bill No. SB 82
Ì610520bÎ610520
Page 13 of 21
1/27/2020 10:57:27 AM 603-02573A-20
330 to competently provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities by requiring all support coordinators to be employees of a qualified organization.
SAME? Yes the intent is the same as what is in the iBudget Waiver handbook. The handbook spells out all the things required of the Waiver Support Coordinator and if the Senate is saying this is not CURRENTLY working then why isn't it? and if it Isn't working then Where is the Qlarant Audit statistics that support the premise that AGENCIES are better than SOLO Waiver Support Coordinators.
3. The enrollment process is EXACTLY the Same for an Agency or a Solo Waiver Support Coordinator. In actuality all AGENCIES had to start out as a WSC in order to "expand their services" the only difference is in the fact that the CURRENT regulation defines an Agency as having 2 employees and that is the ONLY difference and it is not unique to Waiver Support Coordinators it is for all Medicaid Providers.
4. Why is it only SOLO Waiver Support Coordinators being affected? Is the State of Florida Saying they have statistics that show that other SOLO medicaid providers are doing a great job? Is it driven by the Agencies PROFITS being impacted? There has been provided NO PROOF that an Agency provides better Service yet in the wording of the BILL they require 4 employees as the only delineating factor in better service. "by requiring all support coordinators to be employees of a qualified organization. "
5. Small agencies of 4 employees will be forced to HIDE poor performance, and bad employees, in order to maintain their Agency or be forced to stop providing services and the remaining 3 employees will no longer be able to work because they don't meet the 4 person Threshold.
This is the worst part of the BILL! Lets say I have an agency and through no fault of my own, one of the employees leaves/quits/resigns. Now My Agency is at risk of being shut down and I am at risk of having to stop providing services because of a threshold that is flawed in its implementation.
This Bills is bad for the CONSUMER and only a good thing for the Agencies, and for those that currently have agencies and are making a profit. The consumer will suffer.....see my next post on what the IMPACT is.
No comments:
Post a Comment