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Increase in wait times for home attendant and housekeeper services
1:42:41
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108 sec
Council Member Hudson inquires about the significant increase in wait times for home attendant and housekeeper services. Chief Special Services Officer John Rojas explains the reasons behind the increase and clarifies some points about the data.
- Average wait time increased to 44 days, a 51.7% increase from the previous year
- Clarification that this statistic is not specific to APS but applies to general home care
- Reasons for the increase:
- Introduction of a new assessment process by the NY State Department of Health
- Implementation of an independent assessor for evaluations
- Transition challenges in the new process
- Delays due to Medicaid eligibility requirements for some clients
Crystal Hudson
1:42:41
Okay.
1:42:48
The PMMR stated that in the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five, the average number of days to initiate home attendant and housekeeper services for HRA clients was forty four days.
1:43:00
This is a 51.7% increase from the same period last year.
1:43:04
What is the reason for such a drastic increase in the average wait time for APS clients, and what's being done to address this?
John Rojas
1:43:12
So sure.
1:43:13
So I I do wanna clarify that statistic is not specific to APS.
1:43:16
It's the general home care rate.
1:43:18
So Okay.
1:43:19
Just to clarify, it's not specific to APS.
1:43:21
But although they may be SPS clients, you are correct, but it's not specific to APS.
1:43:25
Thinking a couple of things, there are some changes that are occurring especially when we get immediate need cases.
1:43:32
First the New York State Department of Health who's oversight for Medicaid and home care services, They introduced the a new process, it's called the independent assessor.
1:43:44
So for HRA cases when we're initiating home care we would do the assessment, but now the process goes through a third party vendor contracted with state.
1:43:53
So the third party contractor, a contractor with the state does the assessment then it gets referred to us.
1:43:59
So the rollout you know, it was a transition from our normal processes and it was a little bumpy at the start.
1:44:06
I think that's one of the reasons in the increase and that that happened this year.
1:44:14
As well as the fact that when we get a particularly an immediate needs case, the client may come, the client may come with no Medicaid.
1:44:24
So we have to put up the Medicaid prior to we get the home care in place.