Supervisors vote to keep Milwaukee County in lead Family Care role
(7/30/04)
On July 29, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted overwhelmingly (18-1) to maintain the county’s lead role in the Family Care program. The supervisors’ action reinforced their continued commitment to the citizens of Milwaukee County to provide comprehensive and quality safety-net services for more than 5,000 seniors.
“The County Board should be applauded for continuing the county’s role in this vital program. It would have been easy to pass the buck literally and figuratively to a private entity,” says Patricia Yunk, AFSCME District Council 48’s director of public policy. “Unlike W-2, the board did not open the door for private agencies to make huge profits off of public dollars directed to assist the needy and vulnerable.”
The board’s adoption of the Health & Human Needs Committee’s Resolution (File 04-245(a)(c)) authorizes and directs the county’s Department on Aging to submit a proposal by Sept. 30 that retains the department’s role as the sole Care Management Organization for the Family Care program in response to the state of Wisconsin’s RFP for the program’s 2005-2009 contract.
The proposal going to the state does not in any way affect Milwaukee County's role in determining eligibility for Family Care; Milwaukee County is the only legal entity that can determine eligibility for Family Care. The issue before the board was the role Milwaukee County would play in the case management function. The board's action directs the Department on Aging to sumbit a proposal to the state to have Milwaukee County continue performing both the eligiblity and the case management functions. The state will make the final decision on who to award the contract for the case management function.
“The board’s action will ensure public accountability and control,” says Cecile-Marie Purdy, president of AFSCME Local 645, which represents the county’s front-line social workers.
Milwaukee County is one of five pilot counties operating the Family Care program during the past four years. The program provides older citizens with the assistance needed to remain as independent as possible and out of traditional nursing homes.
“AFSCME was active in supporting the continuation of the Department on Aging’s lead role in the Family Care Program because it was in the best interest of the senior citizens served by the program, it was in the best of the taxpayers of Milwaukee County, and it was positive for the workforce,” says District Council 48 Executive Director Richard Abelson.
On July 22, the board's Finance & Audit Committee voted 4-0 (with three excused abstentions) to direct the Department on Aging (DOA) to respond to the state request for proposals (RFP) to run Family Care with the county as sole lead agency for the program's resource center and case management organization. Six days earlier, the Health & Human Needs Committee voted the same way (6-1).
In spring, supervisors learned that it'd take nearly $10 million to bail-out the fiscally mismanaged Family Care program -- the fate of which will impact 30-plus AFSCME jobs. At about the same time, they also learned that Department on Aging Director Stephanie Sue Stein had entered into a deal to privatize the program's case management component to Community Care Organization Inc. (CCO), a non-profit that counts a few former Milwaukee County higher-ups among its management ranks.
In late May, the County Board ordered an audit into DOA’s finances, and put at least a temporary kibosh on Stein’s privatization plan. The board also directed her to come back in a month with three proposals to submit to the state: one with the county continuing to run Family Care as the sole lead agency, one reflecting a move forward with the CCO group and a third one that would work with a consortium of agencies.
What can you do to help at this point? Call your state legislator to insist that the State Department of Health and Human services award the contract to Milwaukee County. Or, contact the Governor's office and send the AFSCME message directly -- by phone, at 608-266-1212; Fax: 608-267-8983; or email.
For more on the Family Care saga, click here .
