This bill could save money and make Medicaid more efficient | Opinion
Despite the looming threat of cuts to more basic services in our state’s budget, there’s a sign of hope in Olympia this legislative session. If adopted, Senate Bill 6024 and House Bill 2230 could save taxpayer money while simultaneously improving services for one of our state’s most vulnerable populations: people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The bills are being proposed by a bipartisan pair of legislators: Sen. Chris Gildon and Rep. Janice Zahn. What if government could save money by changing its processes and helping people who need it?
As the administrator of Ambitions of Washington, I direct services for just over 40 clients with disabilities in Pierce County by supporting them with the tasks of everyday living, including a multitude of personal care tasks, social supports, community living activities and protection and advocacy. We have served supported living clients in their homes in Tacoma, University Place and Lakewood for over 25 years and are proud to support our clients who live, work and play within their own homes and their own communities.
SB 6024 and HB 2230 would streamline monitoring and oversight activities related to providers of community residential services, also known as supported living. Supported living is a service that allows people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in the community in their own homes. It is 99% funded by Medicaid and serves approximately 4,700 people in Washington State. In the aftermath of federal cuts to Medicaid last year, truly every dollar counts. This proposal would make a more effective use of the limited resources we have and help the state better coordinate their own responsible oversight of these services.
I am fortunate to be the second generation in my family to work in supported living. My mother was the one who introduced me to this community, and I’m proud to continue her legacy. I love my job, and I am invested in ensuring that we use our limited resources wisely and provide the highest quality of care.
From my perspective as a state administrator for a supported living provider, this bill would directly improve the quality of care we could provide by allowing our direct support professionals and managers to focus more on the job of caring for our clients and less on redundant paperwork that only checks a box.
For example, when the state conducts routine reviews of our services — an essential and important process — there unfortunately can be multiple state agencies and departments working on repeated reviews throughout the year, but without coordination. The result is that our staff — who are already overburdened with limited resources — end up submitting multiple paperwork requests for the same information, but just to different people in different parts of the state government.
This type of inefficiency does not significantly improve our client’s quality of life. It also takes our staff’s valuable time away from providing the direct personal care that is our mission. Every hour spent on unnecessary paperwork is an hour that could be spent with a client.
Most of our clients rely on a steady routine. They also value the privacy of their home, just like anyone else. But when state agencies send multiple representatives at different times to enter a client’s home to all retrieve the same information for their various offices, it is highly disruptive to our clients. This bill would reduce this unnecessary intrusion into personal homes and also save the state staff time and money.
Despite the national rhetoric, common-sense solutions in Washington State really are still possible. Legislators should take this opportunity to adopt a straightforward and cost-saving solution that will directly benefit people with developmental disabilities. I urge them to pass SB 6024 and HB 2230.
Deirdre Farrison is the state administrator at Ambitions of Washington, which has been providing supported living services in Pierce County for over twenty-five years.