AGING AND LONG TERM CARE COMMITTEE

Monday, January 8, 2007

Administrative Center – Room 3220

9:00 a.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Roger Plesha, Jim Ehrsam, Jerry Sebranek, Ann Fisher, Ray Ebert, Jason Gillett, Lyell Montgomery, and Sharon Hampson (arr @9:17/exc @11:51)       

MEMBERS EXCUSED:  None      

MEMBERS ABSENT:  None   

GUESTS & STAFF:  Pam Semb, Noreen Kuroski, Jim Gausmann, Pete Eide, Mary Hennen, Cathy Lundstad, Bryan Jostad, Sharon Davidson, Bill Shepherd, Jerry Huber, John Medinger, Lynetta Kopp, Mitzi Parr, Loren Krueger, Herb French, Fred Kautz, Beth Curtis, Harold Grau, and Cheryl Stephen

CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

Roger Plesha, Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

MOTION by Ehrsam/Sebranek to approve committee meeting minutes of December 11, 2006 and the joint meeting minutes with the Health & Human Services Board of December 11, 2006.  Motion carried unanimously; Hampson absent.

CONSENT AGENDA

MOTION by Ehrsam/Gillett to receive and place on file the following consent agenda items.

• Commission on Aging Minutes of December 5, 2006

• Long Term Care Council Minutes of December 1, 2006

• Ripples & Waves – Lakeview’s Newsletter for January, 2007

• Information relating to WCA Legislative Exchange on February 6-7, 2007

Motion carried unanimously; Hampson absent.

PUBLIC COMMENT

The following guests spoke to #11 on the agenda, that being “Discuss and Approve Volunteer Driver Program”:  Lynetta Kopp (RSVP Director), Loren Krueger, Herb French, Fred Kautz, Beth Curtis, Harold Grau, and Mitzi Parr.  Some pertinent comments as follows:

• Confused as to need for change re the RSVP Volunteer Driver Program.  Need to do what is best for the user group and what is most cost effective.

• As drivers, see the need for private vehicles vs. bus and sees the organization as caring for those who use the service.  The drivers offer personal assistance such as help in and out of the vehicles as well as carry packages, etc., and the riders are very appreciative for such personal service.

• As a client, the organization and drivers have given rides on weekends and evenings; he spoke highly of the organization and of the drivers.

• As the provider of such services, the County has contracted with RSVP for the past 15 years. County Aging Dept. withheld payment for months August-October but recently received letter that payment would be made in January.  RSVP has met with the County Administrator and County Aging Director to resolve any issues.  Those 60 years and older are eligible to receive transportation services as long as it relates to:  medical, nutritional, social services or personal as required by the State; this same information is given to the County Aging Dept., including the names and ages.  Ms. Kopp distributed various related information including a copy of current contract.

Lengthy discussed ensued, including various questions asked and answers given by the directors of RSVP and County Aging Unit.  Some of the significant:

• The contract with RSVP ends on January 31, 2007.  The contract amount is not to exceed $39,829.  RSVP also receives funds from state and federal grants, $2,500 from each of the two local health organizations, including revenue from the riders.  Total staff at RSVP is 4 plus the Director; one staff person is designated for transportation services.  Discussion on how the cash payments are handled by RSVP staff.  

• Currently have 18-30 drivers.  Drivers are reimbursed at the IRS rate – currently $48.5/mile.  The drivers are also reimbursed for their share of additional required automobile insurance (umbrella coverage) at cost of $6.75 per driver.  Bill Shepherd was quite sure that these drivers would be covered under WMMIC if the program was done in-house vs. contracting.

• RSVP is a contracted agency with La Crosse County Aging Unit being the customer.  Aging Unit has had problems with RSVP billings since 2004 and has continuously been trying to work out the issues to no avail.  Beginning January 1, 2005, the Volunteer Driver Escort Program at RSVP has been funded through s85.21 (Elderly & Disabled Transportation) from Wisconsin Department of Transportation.  The approved trip purposes and other guidelines are established by the s85.21 program.  This program also stresses the need to use resources wisely, appropriately and most cost effectively.  If done in house, could easily see savings of 40%; noted the County Administrator as well as the Commission on Aging concurs with providing this service in house.  The s85.21 funding through the DOT has requirements that need to be met, including who is eligible to receive rides.  RSVP has not provided complete and accurate billing and related information.  To ignore these guidelines is to put this funding at risk - $224,295 for 2007 per Ms. Kuroski.    

DISCUSS AND APPROVE VOLUNTEER DRIVER PROGRAM

Committee Chair Plesha requested agenda item #11 be taken out of sequence due to the number of people in attendance.  He noted that this is not a public hearing and that the public comment period has closed.  If needed, committee should direct questions only to the RSVP Director and the Aging Unit Director.

MOTION by Montgomery/Gillett to extend the current contract with RSVP for up to 90 days and to create a work group of committee member(s) and RSVP Board member(s), including staff, to resolve the issues between the two parties.  Lengthy discussion followed.

A friendly amendment to the motion was made by Ehrsam/Gillett to extend the contract up to 6 months.   The friendly amendment was accepted by Montgomery and Gillett.  Discussion continued.  Ms. Kuroski noted her department is capable of handling the program as well as create a software program for it; this concept was approved unanimously by the Commission on Aging as well as endorsed by the County Administrator.  Shepherd noted the Commission on Aging as being an advisory committee to this committee and that the decision is made by this committee.  Bryan Jostad noted that it’s not unusual to change vendors.  Shepherd said the problem is with current contract language; changes are needed in order to ensure that the criteria is met per s85.21 funding requirements; he suggested staff meet to work out the needed language changes and to present this clarification and expectations of the program to the vendor.  There was a suggestion to work on the needed language changes and to possibly request RFP’s from all qualified vendors.

MOTION by Hampson/Montgomery to amend the motion to read:  “extend the contract with RSVP for up to 6 months on a month-to-month basis while rewriting the language to reach an agreement”.  Further discussion. Motion on the amendment carried on 7 to 1 vote; Gillett-no.  Original motion as amended carried unanimously.

UPDATE ON STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATION RE 2007 VETERANS’ BENEFITS

Jim Gausmann sent a one-page report with the agenda regarding these changes.  He briefly reviewed noting 2007-2009 budget initiatives of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; most significant is the recommendation of $12.3 million in Wisconsin general purpose revenues  to be used to fund the costs of Veterans Museum and reimbursement to veterans’ organizations for providing military honors at veterans’ funerals, including homeless veterans programs.  To date all of these costs have been taken out of the Veterans Trust Fund, which is funded by veterans themselves through interest on loan programs.  Other initiatives include:  increase staffing at Veterans Homes, planning funds for veterans’ cemetery at Fox River Valley, planning for new veterans’ home at Chippewa Falls, study re need for veterans’ home in Superior, exempt veterans service organizations from post-chapter sales and property taxes, and of most significance is the expansion of veterans and surviving spouse property tax credit to veterans with a 30% or greater service connected disability (currently 100% disability and over age 65); if this last one is approved, this will cause more workload for the La Crosse County Veterans Office.  Some of the 2007 initiatives of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs include:  construction funds for continuing projects nationwide, additional funding to hire more clinicians to treat post traumatic stress disorder, funding to repair/replace flood damaged VA facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi, and create VA office of rural health.  Informational.

At this time, Mr. Gausmann presented a thank you plaque on behalf of the Veterans Stand Down Committee to the Aging Unit Benefit Specialists for their assistance during the Annual Veterans Stand Down.  Noreen accepted the plaque on behalf of the two Benefit Specialists, those being Tina Johnson and Larry White.    

APPROVE 2006 AUDIT FOR LAKEVIEW HEALTH CENTER

Pam Semb noted the audit report was handed out at the December committee meeting.  MOTION by Hampson/Fisher to approve as presented the 2006 Audit Report for Lakeview Health Center.  Motion carried unanimously.  

UPDATE ON LAKEVIEW PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHER COUNTIES

Pam Semb and Jerry Huber briefly reviewed the status of the joint Lakeview Partnership with other counties that have residents at Lakeview.  Pam distributed a two-page question and answer sheet; it noted the reasons for such collaboration with other counties.  She suggested members of the committee or any County Board Supervisors to use it as an informational sheet when they discuss this issue with members of other counties.  Supervisor Ehrsam suggested in addition a statistical/financial information sheet.    

APPROVE 2006 AUDIT REPORT FOR HILLVIEW HEALTH CARE CENTER

Pete Eide noted the report was distributed at the December committee meeting.  MOTION by Hampson/Ehrsam to approve as presented the 2006 Audit Report for Hillview Health Care Center.  Motion carried unanimously. 

SELF REPORT SURVEY TO THE STATE RE RESIDENT INCIDENT

Pete Eide noted that just after Hillview received a perfect survey, there was an incident whereby a resident had walked out of the facility for approximately 20 minutes.  Following, Hillview then sent in a self-report survey regarding the incident.  Hillview did receive 2 violations.  Since, new policies are in place and corrections were made.  Pam Semb noted this could happen to any facility that has open doors – different than Lakeview.

DISCUSS LA CROSSE COUNTY SENIOR LIFE NEWSPAPER

Supervisor Gillett noted this as being on the agenda per his request.  He has received complaints from the editor of the Senior Edition as well as from elderly constituents; there is confusion as to the need for two senior newspapers dedicated to the elderly and in most cases having the same information.  Ms. Kuroski distributed copies of each of the two newspapers in question; the Senior Edition is privately owned and the La Crosse Senior Life is the County newspaper which is paid from the Older American Act funds to meet the requirement of providing information and assistance to inform senior citizens with “accurate, reliable information that is free of conflict of interest and is objective and appropriate”.  For this reason the Aging Unit ended its relationship with the Senior Edition and in turn created a County newspaper.  Ms. Kuroski distributed a one-page report as to why the Senior Edition should not be designated as the official County newsletter for La Crosse County citizens.  Bill Shepherd pointed out that being the Senior Edition is privately owned, the County has no control over it.  Also pointed out that they get a lot of information from the Aging Dept. which is public information.  Noreen noted the main issue is the advertising and/or misleading advertising in the Senior Edition.  It costs $1,100 a month to print the County newsletter which is paid from federal funding – no tax levy dollars.  General agreement by the committee members to continue printing the La Crosse Senior Life but to possibly use larger font (print).  Chairman Plesha also asked if the Presort Mail Service could come out of La Crosse vs. Decorah IA.

ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDAS

• None mentioned.  Earlier in the meeting, it was decided to keep the “Volunteer Driver Program” on the agenda for future months until resolved.

NEXT MEETING

Monday, February 5, 2007 at 9:00 a.m.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION by Ebert/Fisher to adjourn the meeting.  Motion carried unanimously; Hampson excused.  The meeting adjourned at 11:53 a.m.

Disclaimer:  The above minutes may be approved, amended or corrected at the next committee meeting.

Cheryl Stephen, Recorder