Wisconsin in the mid 1990s was the first to set up what it called Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), well-advertised storefronts that provide information and advice on home care services, such as bathing and dressing, meal preparation, nursing, housekeeping and specialized transportation.
Now, 42 other states, with the help of federal grants, are following Wisconsin’s lead.
This from an article published earlier this month in Stateline.org.
Stateline.org has been a daily online public information service of The Pew Charitable Trusts since 1999. Professional journalists provide news to “help nourish public debate of important state-level issues such as healthcare, tax and budget policy, the environment, welfare reform and other issues that in recent years have not gotten the media attention they deserve.”
In-home services are important not only because they're what most people want, but because they save a lot of money. Home care costs about half of what nursing home care costs.
The article devotes much space to Wisconsin’s success and quotes Donna McDowell, director of the state Bureau of Aging and Disability Resources.
Wisconsin is now in the second tier of percentage of Medicare dollars spent on homecare services, devoting 42% to those services. Fourteen states now do better. The top five: Oregon, 70%; New Mexico, 67%; Alaska, 63%; Vermont, 60%, and Minnesota, 59%. So we have a way to go to get back to the front of the parade.
More from the article:
Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given states more than $42 million in grants to create Wisconsin-style centers, which now serve about 22 percent of the population. Last month, 11 states – Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin – received additional money to make centers available statewide.
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