The Agency for Persons with Disabilities, one of Floridas most chronically profligate agencies, began looking at ways to cut costs Thursday.
Facing a budget of $810 million in the upcoming fiscal year, APD must find ways to cut back from its current $930 million budget. It will be aided by a 4 percent rate reduction to service providers, but must still find another $90 million in savings to the APDs Medicaid waiver program, which benefits nearly 30,000 people in Florida, in order to meet its budget.
APD was slated to run out of funds in May and was facing a $174 million shortfall before Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order in April giving the agency more funds, and legislative leaders approved spending measures to get it into the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
During a meeting Thursday, providers and patients suggested ways APD management could cut costs, but also bemoaned the need for savings in the first place, saying legislators did not properly fund the agency.
If you continue to cut, then you will be looking at facilities again with people who have gotten out of them because we cant continue to run these facilities on what youve given us, said Carol OGrady, a staffer for one of the health-care providers that contracts with APD to deliver services to disabled patients.
Other providers argued that the quality of APD services would likely suffer as a result of the cutbacks. Jean-Marie Moore, of Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, said the ratio of attendees to patients for Adult Day Training services, anywhere from 1-to-3 to 1-to-5 according to APD rules, should be higher. She gave the example of a patient who pulled the hair out of another while an attendee was dealing with another patient.
I cannot have that individual returning to my ADT without a 1-to-1, Moore said.
She also decried an APD regulation that requires provider staffers to undergo annual training to ensure compliance with the federal Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act provisions.
Its a ridiculous and unnecessary burden, Moore said.
Acting APD director Bryan Vaughn agreed to look at regulatory cutbacks but also warned providers and patients that the agency must meet its budget.
Im very stingy with the states money because its not mine, its the taxpayers money. And I want to squeeze every nickel out of it, Vaughn said.
Vaughn and his team must develop a plan for spending cuts and savings to present to Gov. Scott and the Legislature by Sept. 1. He said the meeting was fruitful, and he will look at the suggestion of one provider who recommended connecting APDs I-budget programs, which gives certain patients a stipend for their care to use as they see fit, to cost modeling programs in order to provide greater certainty and uniformity when projecting future spending.
Were staring off the new (fiscal) year without a deficit and I want to do my best to keep it that way, Vaughn said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
