Published: July 16, 2009 11:08 pm      

Boggs predicts untimely deaths

CHARLESTON — House Majority Leader Brent Boggs grimly predicted the untimely deaths Thursday of the aged and mentally impaired while waiting on the state to find slots for in-home care treatment.

Visibly angered by the waiting list kept by the Department of Health and Human Resources, Boggs suggested the agency could use some of its $238 million surplus to move patients in limbo into treatment.

And the surplus, he emphasized, is only the state’s share of a 3-to-1 federal match.

“We’re in a situation where they have a surplus, wanting to re-institute what is, in a roundabout way, a waiting list,” Boggs, D-Braxton, said after sparring with Marsha Morris, DHHR commissioner for public health.

“There will be people, terminally ill people, who will die before they get services.”

Morris told the Joint Committee on Government and Finance her agency is attempting to determine how many slots are available for in-home care and one difficulty in deciding this is the time it takes to get bills from providers.

Some firms delay sending them to the DHHR for as long as one year, she said.

“I’m very skeptical of that,” Boggs said afterward.

In the interim, he said, the “most vulnerable” West Virginians are left in limbo on a waiting list, without in-home attention.

“And by the time they jump through the hoops and they determine if there’s a slot available, there will be people that are terminally ill that will probably die as a result of not being able to promptly get in-home care,” he said.

House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White, D-Mingo, likewise was miffed over the matter, telling Morris he knew of a constituent — and stressed he could provide a name and telephone number, if needed — who told him he inquired about services and was informed by the DHHR the snag was caused by the Legislature’s failure to put enough money into the program.

“That is just absolutely, patently untrue,” Boggs said. “We have fully funded that continually.”

Boggs said lawmakers revisit this issue year after year after year, and the fingerpointing toward them eventually occurs.

“Every year I’ve been here — and that’s 14 years — they’ve always gotten exactly what they asked for to make sure there were sufficient slots for that,” the majority leader said.

Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, also voiced skepticism that some bills aren’t sent into the program for a year after services are rendered.

“I don’t think that’s realistic,” Boggs told reporters after the meeting.

The House leader said the “bottom line” is that DHHR will force eligible residents into nursing homes at three times the annual cost as opposed to letting them stay at home for treatment in a more conducive atmosphere.

“I think the progression should be, stay in your home as long as you can, then, if necessary, you gravitate into a nursing home,” Boggs said.

“We’re doing this in reverse. This is just a way to squeeze more money out of the program at the expense of the clients and those that are in need — the most vulnerable in our society, the aged and the disabled.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com