How much is a life worth? Does privatizing medical transportation services in Wisconsin for our neediest citizens actually save a dime if it undermines health care? What if service failures may have contributed to a man's death because LogistiCare repeatedly left him without rides for weeks at a time despite the fact he needed regular dialysis? How is it responsible to "privatize" a service that literally means life-or-death if those with exclusive government contracts maximize profits by denying necessary medical support services?
VOICES has been following and reporting on this massive privatization bamboozle which was initiated under Gov. Jim Doyle's administration (please follow links at end of this article). Last Week Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that despite assurances to the contrary, complaints continue to rise against LogistiCare transit service.
The MJS headline misleads by calling the increasing complaints a "spike", inappropriately implying that this is an anomaly -- in fact, this appears to be LogistiCare's business operating model and there is no reason to believe increases in missed rides is a "spike" instead of an ongoing trend.
While not the first time, VOICES published a letter demanding an audit in July, now 51 Wisconsin legislators, including republicans and democrats, are requesting that the state's Audit Bureau conduct a full audit of LogistiCare to resolve potentially life-threatening service failures.
It's. About. Time.
No one should want to see more tragic stories like the unfortunate 67-year-old Weyauwega man, Jim Barry, suffering liver failure, struggling with cancer, unable to drive, and absolutely depended on publicly-provided transportation for dialysis three times a week. After 7 missed rides for dialysis that he absolutely needed to stay alive, Barry told the press shortly before he died:
"I feel like they’re trying to kill me. Yesterday, I made
my funeral arrangements."
Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber (D-Appleton) initiated this new letter and issued the following statement:
"We're requesting a full program audit, which would require the nonpartisan Audit Bureau to look at the contract, financial things, pretty much everything,"Bernard's letter points out that claims by LogistiCare that it is providing more responsive phone support are misleading -- their endless series of robo-voice-menues does not actually provide support, but LogistiCare misrepresents each call and transfer as being "customer services" -- blatantly false though some nooooze reports mislead this endless series of holds and transfers as being an "improvement."
Under LogistiCare's contract, they handle the complaint phone line and any reporting of complaints. Under their services they claim that every call is answered within 3 minutes, however it counts the call as being answered if it transfers you to another robo-menu.All summer, VOICES has been pointing out the dangers of systematic abuses when an organization like Logisticare is paid for services whether they are provided or not -- don't be mislead by the let the term "Non-Emergency Medical Transportation", rides to health care appointments certainly can and do have life-or-death consequences.
Because LogitiCare's business model and contract with the state is based on an assumptions of usage, LogitiCare has huge financial incentives to cheat the system by
denying rides -- they are actually paid whether the rides are delivered or not!
While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's administration is not responsible for creating this nightmare, they are standing down while LogistiCare abuses their contract by failing to deliver rides despite the fact that they are being paid to provide their rides -- each "no show" for transportation allows LogistiCare to keep taxpayers money that was specifically provided to pay for that ride.
Disability groups have seen enough of LogistiCare and their massive service failure and are demanding the state to transfer quality control of LogistiCare to an independent company. Alan Freed, an attorney with Disability Rights Wisconsin, reports that since September 1st, his agency is stunned to have received more than 100 complaints - well above the total it received in the two months after LogistiCare took over services for 600,000 Medicaid and BadgerCare recipients outside the greater Milwaukee area on July 1 last year. LogistiCare's service failures are increasing despite promises to improve.
Freed states:
We're hoping to make them more aware of the extent of the problems that people have been representing to us," Freed said. "Being in Madison, I don't think they hear directly from riders. They're getting their information from LogistiCare.
We're hoping to give them some real anecdotal narratives from people who have suffered from bad results. We're hoping we can convince (the Department of Health Services) to exercise more oversight in the short run, at least to put pressure on LogistiCare to fix these start-up problems.
It's a question of the fox guarding the henhouse when LogistiCare is a clearinghouse of complaints. And the state is only hearing about them after the fact through LogistiCare's logging of these complaint calls. Who's guarding the fox? What does DHS have in place to ensure that the information on complaints they're receiving from LogistiCare is actually reflective of the complaints people are making?Wisconsin is not saving ny money -- funds designated to transport high-needs citizens to medical appointments are being siphoned off by a private company. LogistiCare hides behind services failures that it has built into its system -- the huge numbers of missed rides and complaints is not by happenstance.
While Gov. Jim Dolye created this mess, it is time for Gov. Scott Walker's administration to clean it up, but they are shirking responsibility. An audit has to be done and taxpayer monies should not go to companies that keep state funds by denying services they were contracted to provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment