The American Parkinsons Association- West Coast Office

May 7, 2004 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I am writing in opposition to the Assisted Living Waiver Pilot Program (ALWPP) that California Department of Health Services (DHS) proposes to submit to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in June.

The DHS proposal is needlessly bureaucratic, costly to taxpayers, discriminatory, restricts choice, and ultimately prevents aging in place for most seniors who choose to live in Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly. The Department of Health should work to remove barriers that prevent Olmstead not create new obstacles. 

The DHS proposal is contrary to civil rights and, if used as a model for statewide expansion for similar Olmstead measures, will end up wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.  DHS did not consider a pragmatic ALWPP alternative that incorporates current licensing guidelines, considers local market conditions, adopts prudent fiscal restraint (tiered reimbursement rates based on level of care), permits the widest array of contracted providers and serves as a useful template for aging in place for all participants.

According to the California Little Hoover Commission, what plagues DHS is “overly complex” organizational structures, “perverse” funding mechanisms and “weak oversight” that conspires to deny services to an expanding pool of genuinely needy recipients.  There can be no better example of this than a DHS that develops a pilot program that is inefficient, wastes taxpayer dollars and hurts the people it is supposed to help.  I urge you, Governor Schwarzenegger, to get your house in order. 

 Sincerely,

John Amber
West Coast Assistant Director