Why this budget item is requested:

Community Care Services Program (CCSP)
     CCSP provides older Georgians and individuals with disabilities eligible for nursing home care the option of receiving home and community-based Medicaid services: Adult Day Health, Alternative Living Services, Emergency Response Services, Home Delivered Meals, Home Delivered Services, Personal Support Services, and Out-of-Home Respite Care. 130 consumers chose to enroll in the Consumer Directed option for Personal Support Services which gives them more choice and control over their services. SFY 2008 data shows that CCSP services delay nursing home placement by an average of 47 months. The CCSP average Medicaid expenditure per consumer of $8,550 is $18,023 less than the nursing facility Medicaid cost.  

CCSP continues to be a cost effective long-term care program option. Informal caregivers, often family or friends, participate in the care giving for CCSP clients, working with care coordinators to determine the needs that the informal caregivers are meeting and identify the gaps that CCSP fills. A majority of CCSP clients pay a cost share, participating personally in the financial responsibility for their care.

An appropriation of state funds in the amount of $4.2 million would provide the “Maintenance of Need” to sustain and expand services to existing clients. State funds of $2.5 million will permit individuals on the waiting list for CCSP to receive services or existing clients to receive expanded services. Total State funds requested for CCSP services during Fiscal Year 2010 are $6.3 million.

Non-Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS)
     People who are served by this program are 60 years of age or older. The program targets those in the greatest social and economic need. The majority of program participants are in their mid to late seventies. The program includes services such as Home Delivered Meals, Transportation, Respite Care, Adult Day Care, Homemaker Services, Personal Care Services, Senior Center Meals/Programs, Wellness Program Services and Minor Home Repairs. Often these services are a supplement to those provided by caregivers for older adults who are suffering with Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias or chronic health conditions, and grandparents caring for their grandchildren.

The goal of the program is to provide supportive services to older Georgians, their caregivers and families, to enable them to remain at home and manage their care, promoting health, independence and self-reliance.

At an average cost of $2,000 per client, an appropriation of $4,000,000 would allow 2,000 additional people who are on the waiting list to receive HCBS services.

What This Budget Item Would Do:

• State appropriations to the Department of Human Resources budget of $6,300,000 for CCSP and $4,000,000 for HCBS would provide cost-effective, long-term care services in the setting that people value most – in their own homes and their own communities.

Coalition of Advocates for Georgia’s Elderly (CO-AGE)

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