Saturday, December 17, 2011

Home care agencies make big bucks off state

From the NY Times:

Every day across New York State, thousands of part-time workers visit the homes of developmentally disabled people to teach them simple tasks, like grooming or how to take a bus.

For their work, which requires no special credentials, the employees typically earn $10 to $15 an hour.

But when the nonprofit organizations that employ those workers bill the state, they collect three and four times that amount — with some having received as much as $67 an hour.

Spending on this little-known home care program, called Community Habilitation, has soared in recent years, creating multimillion-dollar surpluses at some nonprofit agencies and eye-popping salaries and benefits for those who run them.

And it helps explain how New York’s costs of caring for developmentally disabled people have ballooned in recent years, creating the nation’s most generous system of Medicaid-financed programs, with little scrutiny of its efficiency or results.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

For their work, which requires no special credentials, the employees typically earn $10 to $15 an hour.

I used to be a home attendant back in 2007 ,and I was getting minimun wage.

Anonymous said...

The Co that provide the workers make the money - most of the workers make minimum wage and are not even trained. The State should set up standards for the workers as well as the maximum rate to be paid to the Companies that provide the workers.

FlooshingRezident said...

Why not look at NorthShore/LIJ home-care nurses - paid for by Medicare - they run about $70/hour and basically do nothing!

Healthcare is such a total racket!

Anonymous said...

why not look into the home health aides paid for by Medicaid? they lie about hours that they work, do not sleep over the patient's house/apartment and bill Medicaid for 24 hours when they are in fact working only four or five hours, if that. You may call sitting on a couch watching tv or yapping on your cell phone something else. To Medicaid it's billable hours.

there is a little known law that if you have had a document able disability and/or medical condition from the age of 18, you are eligible for Medicaid regardless that you may have a job and Health insurance already. Although the wage earning cap for this is around $55,000 per year the truly wiley and over entitled can have a fair hearing and get medicaid while pulling down over $75,000 a year, own property and have considerable financial assets.

This means that your tax dollars are paying for not only 24 hours of home health aides, but items such as very expensive electric wheelchairs, adult diapers, electric scooters, and any kind of medical supply that you can think of.

The next time you see a disabled person in a wheelchair going about by themselves, ask them where their home health aide is. they are supposed to have the aides w/ them 24 hours. instead what the patients do is, let the aide off and then demand that any one around them help them for free. The general public feels for such a person , but don't. They are defrauding Medicaid and laughing all the way to the bank.
the other concern is this, what if you assist a disabled person and become injured? do you think that anyone is going to help you?

Anonymous said...

the D.O.Education special education teachers at P.S.130 Q and other schools, (DISTRICT 98), teach 40-50 "pupils".
two teachers per seven pupils ,in each room.35 buses for 40 pupils ? a check of math & E.L.A scores are below 3% of grade level and most do not get tested. one can assume that using feeding utensils and personal hygiene is taught.

so why do after school age clients, need health care workers to repeat this task ?

the spec. ed. per pupil cost is $45,000 to $65,000. per pupil/per year, of taxpayer money.

if needed, the clients without family should have help, but the costs appear to be UNSUSTAINABLE in this economic depression.

Anonymous said...

"This means that your tax dollars are paying for not only 24 hours of home health aides, but items such as very expensive electric wheelchairs, adult diapers, electric scooters..."

Why don't you go to sleep gramps. Really, how many people needing the accouterments of disability are able to earn 50K...Let alone 75K.
Give these fables a break old man..and stop worrying...when Obama starts to tax The Rich..he won't be looking at old geezers in stick houses out in Bayside...He'll mean -RICH-.

Anonymous said...

And that's why the VALLONES did what they did at the foot if the triboro

Anonymous said...

#6...you are criticizing the wrong commenter,LEFTIE..

Anonymous said...

The
"North Flushing Senior Center"
gets big bucks from the State...
State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky....that is!

Isn't it to the tune of $500,000 annually?

An investigation of her and her "Center" is long overdue.

Those are some very expensive "senior lunches" that are being handed out to the seniors that pay for them!

Maybe it's time to "FOIL" their budget.

I smell flanken, latkas and money laundering...no?