Like many states and localities across the country, Utah is feeling the “double whammy” of increasing reports of elder abuse and declining budgets.  According to the The Salt Lake Tribune, the number of adult protective services (APS) cases reported has increased by more than 20 percent in the past year while the budget was cut 22 percent.

The dangerous confluence of growing case loads and a poor economy requires APS agencies to look at new approaches to managing investigations.  The Harmony for APS solution can increase worker efficiency, allow organizations to accomplish more tasks with fewer resources, and improve management oversight.   A great example is the Web Intake Form that allows citizens to report potential cases of abuse or neglect over the Internet, which reduces the volume of phone calls to adult protective services hot lines.  This self-service reporting system enables APS organizations to put fewer resources on the phone and more people in the field to investigate growing case loads.  Learn more about Harmony for APS here.

Join us for a live, free webcast on March 11th at 1:00 PM Pacific Time as we demonstrate how off-the-shelf software designed specifically for California county-level Adult Protective Services agencies (APS) can simplify the generation of state-mandated reports.

Keith Ewell, director of market strategy for Harmony, show attendees how Harmony’s APS California Reporting Module can help counties across the state compile information gathered during an intake and/or investigation into the State of California’s required report formats, and eliminate the labor-intensive process of manually compiling required information into an error-free monthly report to meet state specifications.

Click here to view this online video for more information from Keith on this upcoming webcast.

Starting today, eligible residents in Middle Tennessee have greater access to services in their homes and communities.  Using funding from the Long-Term Choices Act of 2008, low income elders in the middle portion of the state can choose to receive basic services at home instead of through institutions. The program will go live state-wide later this summer.

The launch of the program is a huge step forward for a state where 95% of its current long-term care spend goes to instutional care.  ”Choices changes how we deliver long-term care and makes home- and community-based care services more available,” said Patti Killingsworth, chief of long-term care for the TennCare Bureau, the state’s Medicaid program.

“People will have freedom of choice between home-based care and facility care as long as care can be safely provided and doesn’t cost more than a nursing home.”

Excellent article and editorial in the Tennessean. Read them here and here.

According to new figures released by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, the state’s Home Care for the Elderly program saves $5 of institutional costs for every $1 spent in the program.  More specifically, the average annual cost of caring for a senior in a Florida institution is over $50,000 a year while the average cost of providing in-home services is just under $10,000 a year.   

With more than 23% of Florida’s 17,800,000 citizens over the age of 60, the state has demonstrated that it is able to effectively care for many elders through lower cost in-home services (only about 2.4% of elders are cared for institutions).    The state’s progressive use of in-home services will only become more important given that the number of elders in the state is expected to double by 2020. 

This article in the Ledger provides more details and it highlights the need for Florida to maintain and increase funding for in-home services.

In another effort to help seniors remain in their homes and communities, lawmakers in Indiana are considering a bill that would allow Area Agencies on Aging to make the call about whether consumers are eligible for Medicaid waivers-funded services before the formal paper work process is complete. By making a more immediate determination about waiver eligibility, the state can avoid putting certain consumers in nursing homes (where no waiver is required) and immediately direct them to home and community-based services.

The state believes that it can operate with about a 1% error rate, based upon on the experience of other states with similar programs. Such a low error rate would easily be recaptured through the overall cost savings associated with the increased used of home and community-based care instead of far more costly intuitional-based care.

According to the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, only 5% of Indiana’s 2007 long-term care
expenses related to long term care went toward home and community-based services – well below the national average of 27 percent. Read the article here.

John A. Carey of the Ohio Senate makes a great case for why the expansion of home and community-based services for aging citizens is a true win-win for seniors and Ohio tax payers alike. According to Senator Carey, if the state of Ohio is able to expand its use of waiver programs to bring its spending on home and community-based services in-line with the national average, the state would save $900 million a year in Medicaid costs.  This figure is ostensibly based upon the Ohio Department of Aging figures that show that institutional care costs between two and three times as much as home and community-based care.   And it could be that these numbers prove conservative since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that the 2008 national average cost for institutional care is about $68,000 a year while care at home costs about $18,000 a year -  a ratio of 3.8 to 1.

More importantly, and beyond the clear economic benefit, Mr. Carey’s letter to the Hillsborough Times Gazette points out that a recent AARP survey found that 94 percent of Ohioans would prefer to receive care in their home.  You can read the letter in its entirety here.

Today, Harmony announced availability of an enhanced version of Harmony for APS  the industry’s first on-demand solution built specifically for Adult Protective Services organizations.   You can read the press release here.

Harmony for APS is the result of more than two years of market research, product development and customer validation.  A number of state-level agencies are either live on Harmony for APS or nearing the end of their short implementation process. 

A July 2009 study published by the National Association of State Units on Aging demonstrates how the economic downturn is putting pressure on organizations to cut budgets while the demand for services is increasing.  APS is clearly an area of concern given the growing volume of calls to protective services organizations.  The NASUA report indicates that more than 80% of agencies are responding to this challenge via technology-based solutions to help increase productivity. 

Here at Harmony, our experience working with adult protective services organizations has demonstrated a significant return on investment related to APS automation projects. 

Harmonys’ Keith Ewell has authored an excellent white paper on this subject which can be downloaded here.