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UID:Indybay-18725696
SEQUENCE:18825787
CREATED:20121115T011300Z
DESCRIPTION:Speak out against forcing Low-Income Seniors/Disabled into Managed Care\nSF 
 DAAS Town Hall\nTuesday, December 4, 10:30 AM – 12 noon\nCurry Senior 
 Center, 333 Turk St. (betw. Hyde & Leavenworth)\n# 5, 31, 10, 70 buses or 
 Civic Center BART/Metro\n\nSan Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adult 
 Services is holding a Town Hall meeting to gather input from low-income 
 seniors and people with disabilities on the expected effects of forcing 
 these people into managed care through Blue Cross or the San Francisco 
 Health Plan.  One or the other of these plans would manage not only 
 people’s health services but also the social services that enable them to 
 live in the community and not in institutions.\n\nThe following is an 
 article from the SF Gray Panthers September 2012 newsletter:\n\nUnder 
 pressure from state budget shortfalls and the Obama Administration, 
 California is rushing headlong into a cost-saving experiment of forcing 1.2 
 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities on both Medicare 
 and Medi-Cal into “managed care.” It means care for poor aged and 
 disabled people would be managed by private insurance companies or county 
 agencies with little experience with these people and with very little 
 accountability or grievance procedure built in. The agency is paid a set 
 amount per patient, so any care not delivered means more profit or less 
 loss.\n\nWorse yet, these private insurance companies and county agencies 
 would also manage IHSS, Meals-on- Wheels, many senior centers, and the 
 other vital services that let frail seniors and disabled people stay at 
 home and not be put into institutions.\n\nCalifornia started forcing the 
 younger, non-disabled Medi-Cal-only population onto managed care last year. 
 Already there are State hearings on patients separated from their doctors 
 and cancer treatment and dialysis interrupted. Some of the worst Medi-Cal 
 only managed care providers would manage care for the aged and 
 disabled.\n\nFor aged or disabled patients, a workable relationship with 
 the right doctor is important, yet patients could lose access to their 
 doctors if they are arbitrarily assigned to a plan their doctor is not 
 in.\n\nPeople just getting by on the number of state-paid hours of home 
 care could have those hours cut even more by the managed care plan and be 
 forced into nursing homes. The State already [tried to institute] plans 
 [for] a 7% cut in IHSS hours with no exemptions.\n\nOne might expect such 
 basic decisions, with such life-changing medical and social consequences 
 for so many people, would be slowly and carefully deliberated. Not so! 
 Crucial elements are built into Gov. Brown’s budget. The State plans to 
 start in 2013 and quickly expand to cover 8 counties and 80% of the people 
 on both Medicare and Medi -Cal. \n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/14/18725696.php
SUMMARY:Speak out against forcing Low-Income Seniors/Disabled into Managed Care
LOCATION:Curry Senior Center, 333 Turk St. (betw. Hyde & Leavenworth)\n# 5, 31, 10, 
 70 buses or Civic Center BART/Metro
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/14/18725696.php
DTSTART:20121204T183000Z
DTEND:20121204T200000Z
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