The new Legislative Audit Bureau audit report on Family Care shows the program is working as planned, and has an average cost per person well below the average cost of nursing home care.
Here are some reasons Family Care should continue on as planned and expanded into all 72 Wisconsin counties…
1. The report states, “our audit findings indicate that Family Care has improved access to long-term care by allowing participants to avoid institutional care, and in many instances to remain in their own home.â€
2. More than 80% of participants expressed satisfaction with Family Care.
3. Federal matching funds are supporting a large majority of program costs.
4. The overall average cost per participant is $2,800 a month which if far less than over $5,000 a month for institutional care. This is despite the fact that there is a high percentage of higher cost individuals who are developmentally disabled.
5. The number of improper payments to providers is low, and there were no reports of fraudulent payments in the first six months of 2010.
At the moment, the State is still considering putting a cap on Family Care and freezing further expansion.
Clearly there is no good reason to tamper with this successful and cost effective program.
