It’s been over seven months since senior care became a part of New Jersey’s Medicaid jurisdiction, but there are still many problems that need to be ironed out. The biggest is the fact that there are long delays in getting approved for in-home care. Many people are waiting four or more months before they get approval for services, and it has created quite a logjam within the senior care system. Some people haven’t had a lapse in care, but they have been billed for the time in between when they first applied for care and for when the state actually granted approval of the services. It’s unfortunate, and thousands of dollars have been spent by the public as a result of this, but hopefully this delay will be resolved very soon as there are many people unable to afford this.
Right now, it’s up in the air if the people that are n this situation will be reimbursed for the care that they’ve paid for. For those that are on a fixed income, funds are limited and discretionary spending needs to be limited in order to prepare for emergencies down the road. The money that people are spending on senior care when they were counting on having things covered by Medicare is just one less emergency that can be covered later on.
The good news for those of us that live outside of New Jersey is that they can be seen as a litmus test of sorts for the rest of the nation. The major issues are being observed by the Medicaid departments for each state across the country–including California’s Medi-Cal program. The problems that NJ has had will provide a warning for the rest of us, and the solutions that they come up with can potentially be used by other state’s, too.
It’s exciting that states like New Jersey are beginning to move toward helping out with in-home care costs. Some states already do this in a limited fashion, including California. However, with more people becoming elderly as time goes by and with new health insurance policies being put in place, having a more comprehensive safety net in place for our senior citizen community–particularly those of a lower income–is extremely important for our society to continue caring for those that need it.
Many of the problems that New Jersey is currently facing stem from lower income people applying for care because of Affordable Care Act requirements. If this is the case, then the problem will resolve as time goes by. There’s no guarantee that this will happen quickly, however. It is also something that is affecting all of the Medicaid applicants in the state, not just those that would be in need of senior care or in-home care. State officials are saying that the transition is going smoothly despite all of the reported problems, but there is always room for improvement. Hopefully others can use the problems and by being more aware of them beforehand, they will be able to fix them before they become issues in other states in the future.
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