State data shows more than 6,000 elderly died while awaiting services
TALLAHASSEE — More than 6,000 poor, disabled, or elderly Floridians who applied for home- and community-based services died during a 12-month period while they were on waiting lists for those services, state data shows.
According to statistics provided by the Department of Elder Affairs, 6,538 people died during the 2014-2015 fiscal year while they were on a waiting list for one of four programs aimed at keeping the elderly out of nursing homes. The four programs include: Medicaid managed long term care, the Home Care for the Elderly, Community Care for the Elderly and the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative.
POLITICO Florida requested the data from the Department of Elder Affairs after Rep. Mark Pafford, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, asked House health care budget chief, Rep. Matt Hudson, for that information during a committee hearing last week. Hudson told Pafford that he did not have the data and that Pafford needed to request the information from the state.
Pafford plans to press House leaders on the waitlists during budget debate on the floor on Wednesday.
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