INDIANAPOLIS —
Indiana families of children with autism are facing years-long wait for access to state services, a wide geographic disparity in care, and shrinking resources for those children when they become adults.
That grim assessment was offered Monday to the Indiana Commission on Autism, a legislative study group charged with making recommendations for how to improve care and services for more than 40,000 Hoosiers who have been diagnosed the disorder.
“Our need for services far outstrips the resources that we’ve devoted to this as a state,” said John Dickerson, executive director of The Arc of Indiana advocacy group.
Most pressing may the long wait for access to the state’s Medicaid-waiver programs, designed to keep people with disabilities from being institutionalized. There are now more than 19,000 people on the Medicaid-waivers list, waiting an average of 10 to 12 years to access federal Medicaid funds to help them offset the cost of in-home or community-based care.
More than 5,500 people on the list are individuals diagnosed with autism.
Commission member state Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, said those numbers show a system “so broken and so dysfunctional” that the state needs to look at dismantling the current system and creating a more effective way to make sure families with the most pressing needs are getting help.
Mary Rosswurm is a commission member from Hamilton County and mother of a 20-year-old son with autism. She told fellow commission members: “We’ve been on the wait list since 1998.”
State Sen. Tim Skinner, D-Terre Haute, said families on the wait list face additional frustrations: Because of the complexity of state and federal Medicaid rules, some families who’ve been approved by the state to get on the wait list find out years later that they don’t meet the federal guidelines. In essence, they’ve been waiting in vain, he said.
“It would be awful for a family to be on the list for six or seven years, believing they were moving forward, and then to find out that they’re not eligible,” Skinner said.
Officials with the state’s Family and Social Services Agency, which administers the Medicaid-waiver programs, said the length and duration of the waiting list has made it difficult for FSSA to monitor a person’s continuing eligibility.
The issue is critical not just to families in need but to the state. Indiana’s Medicaid costs, which includes the Medicaid waiver programs, have risen so much that they now take up a larger percentage of the state budget than higher education.
At Monday’s meeting, the commission stopped short of recommending a legislative fix, but it did push FSSA officials to take a look at the cost of overhauling the Medicaid-waiver system so that families with the most critical needs would be served first.
Commission members also told FSSA officials that they want to find a way to expand a program, paid for with Medicaid waivers, that would allow more adults with autism to live in small group settings near their home communities.
The commission also agreed to work with rural health care providers on the issue of access to diagnostic services for families with an autistic child. Commission chairman Sen. Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood, said families who live in central Indiana have better access to medical specialists and researchers who specialize in autism and its related disorders.
Waltz said there was “a great disparity” between urban and rural areas in Indiana. “That doesn’t seem right to me,” said Waltz.
Maureen Hayden is Statehouse bureau chief for CNHI Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
Local Education
Families with autistic children face long wait time for state services
- Local Education
-
-
Mardi Gras celebration precedes Lent
New Orleans jazz filled the hallway inside St. Mary’s School Tuesday night, as people snacked on Dorritos, cookies and cake — all part of the church’s Mardi Gras celebration.
-
Laundry room fire forces evacuation at AU
Anderson University students were evacuated from Myers Hall on Monday when a trash can caught fire in a basement laundry room, authorities said.
-
Getting Together: Parent starts chess club for son, other students
After seeking out a chess club for his son and finding none, Michael Bradley decided to begin the Anderson Chess Club. Meeting at the library once a week, he is providing an opportunity for school-aged children of all skill levels to square off and match wits.
-
Positive influences
Anderson attorney Zaki Ali, Anderson music teacher Tauri Ivey and actor and comedian Bill Cosby are the subjects of the winning essays in the Ike Weatherly Jr. Black History Month Essay Contest for fourth and fifth graders.
-
Black History Month Essay Contest winners
Here are the three winning essays in the Ike Weatherly Jr. Black History Month essay contest for fourth and fifth graders.
-
Buck named to Cedarville dean’s list
Logan Buck, son of Brett and Becky Buck of Middletown, has been named to the Cedarville University Dean’s List for the 2011 fall semester.
-
South Madison welcomes new school board member
The South Madison Community School Corp. board didn’t waste any time getting new member Bill Hutton involved, voting him in unanimously and swearing him in during its meeting Thursday night.
-
Impact and Excel Centers prepare to look for staff
Board members from the Impact Center and Excel Center met Thursday afternoon at the Flagship to discuss the hiring process.
-
Adult education GED classes offered
Anderson Community Schools is offering classes in GED preparation, English Language classes and Basic Education Refresher classes for the 2011-12 school year.
-
ACS taking a look at its dress code
The Anderson Community School Corp. dress code that many parents have argued against may see some slack in the near future.
- More Local Education Headlines
-
