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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Health Care Cuts That Really Hit "Home"

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Friday, August 8, 2008   

Nashville, TN – The recently-passed Long Term Care Choices Act of 2008 is being hailed as landmark legislation that will keep people in their homes and communities. But advocates say TennCare is planning to cut funding to the most medically- fragile elderly – a move they say will cost taxpayers more and send more people to nursing homes.

Tony Garr, director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, says the issue is really about beefing up the bottom line for managed-care organizations.

"Shifting a person from their home to the hospital means Medicare starts paying the bill, rather than the managed-care organization."

In his State of The State Address, Governor Phil Bredesen pledged to make TennCare services more humane and consumer-driven. Garr says the governor is breaking that promise before improvements from the recently-passed Long Term Care Act have even been implemented.

"The governor knows that if the managed-care organizations make a profit in Tennessee, they will stay in Tennessee and they will serve Tennessee."

Currently about 1,000 people in the state receive full-time care. TennCare says they are proposing cuts because in-home care costs the state too much money. But Garr says that hospitals and nursing homes usually cost more. He says there is an appeals process for families to try to get additional services, and the Tennessee Health Care Campaign is offering training sessions to help nurses and social workers.

Training in Memphis today runs from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.M., at the Memphis Center For Independent Living, 1633 Madison Ave.




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