KVH Members In The News

Sep 1st, 2010

A story in today’s Courier-Journal featured two Kentucky Voices for Health members who testified at the Medicaid Cost Containment Task Force meeting in Frankfort on August 31.

KVH member Jim Kimbrough testified on behalf of AARP about the need to focus on keeping elderly and disabled Kentuckians in their own homes and communities rather than in an institution. Community-based services such as personal care and housekeeping help are cheaper than nursing homes, and Kimbrough noted that Medicaid spent $806 million on nursing home care in 2008 and only $182 million on home and community services. “We can provide quality services to more people at the same amount,” he said.

KVH Co-Chair Sheila Schuster, Executive Director of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, asked lawmakers to consider Medicaid services as an investment. Access to mental health care and medication, for example, helps keep people out of costly psychiatric hospitals and allows many to work and pay taxes, Schuster said.

She also asked lawmakers to consider a change that the state’s community mental health centers have sought for years — allowing Medicaid to cover the cost of a primary care physician at local mental health offices. Many patients have untreated physical ailments, such as heart disease or diabetes, that could be treated when they visit a mental health clinic, Schuster said.

“A very little investment of money brings a whole lot of savings in dollars and a lot of lives saved,” Schuster said.

Read the full Courier-Journal story here.

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