Healey curtails access to elder home care programs as caseloads surge in Massachusetts

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Posted on 01/30/2025 7:39:36 PM PST by massmike

Elder services providers grappling with surging caseloads and funding deficits are bracing for new state directives that will curtail access to home care programs.

The Healey administration on Feb. 1 plans to tighten eligibility criteria for older adults enrolling in the state-funded Enhanced Community Options Program (ECOP), which serves frail individuals who clinically qualify for nursing homes but are able to receive intensive at-home care. By the start of March, the state will then impose a cap on the number of available ECOP slots, providers told the News Service.

Older adults considered to have the lowest need would be unable to access basic home care services in the new fiscal year, and frail Bay Staters in the coming months may be forced to leave their homes and move into nursing facilities under the ECOP changes, providers say.

Under that policy proposal, older adults with fewer needs would no longer qualify for basic services, such as meal support or housekeeping, Crimmins said. Those individuals would need to rely on other support systems, such as a spouse or other family members who can provide help.

Adult children may also need to cut back on work or grapple with other disruptions as they struggle to care for their parents under the strain of scaled-back state services, said Roseann Martoccia, executive director of WestMass ElderCare, Inc.

“If people can’t receive enough services to safely remain at home, then families have to make — and that person has to make — tough choices about, ‘Can I live at home with less services?'” Martoccia said.

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1 posted on 01/30/2025 7:39:36 PM PST by massmike

To: massmike

2 posted on 01/30/2025 7:46:41 PM PST by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created..." )

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