Letter to the Editor: Removal of Advantage Program will cost increase state budget for decades to come.

Advertisement

I am a Case Manager for the Advantage Program and I am asking for your help. I am not sure if you have heard about the upcoming cuts to the Advantage program, but I am asking for you help to get the word out to the public as most people do not even realize we have such a program in place. The Advantage Program is in place to help the elderly and disabled citizens of Oklahoma to remain in their homes with services provided by Advantage, rather than be placed in a Nursing Home.

First of all this makes no financial sense as to why they would do this. The Advantage program cares for 20,000 frail and elderly Oklahomans with the majority being homebound. The Advantage program’s total budget is $175 million or $8,750 per member.

The annual budget for Nursing Homes in Oklahoma is $1 BILLION serving 14,500 patients or $68,000 per patient. The Nursing Home industry has informed the state that they do not have beds to accommodate even a portion of these 20,000 people. And let me add, most of our members do not have family they can rely on, the Advantage program is all they have.

Advertisement

Elimination of the Advantage program will increase Oklahoma’s state budget for decades to come. Several Healthcare agencies will be forced to close down, displacing thousands of employees, which in turn will cost the state even more.

This is not just an economic problem but potentially a moral crisis.

Advertisement

I am asking that you please run a story on this, and PLEASE make it HEADLINE news.

If you need any other information or more “fact”, please contact me. This must get to the general public before it’s too late.

Thank you for reading this.

Shelli McAlister, LPN CM