From
The Daily Comet in Louisiana. In the picture, Janet Sonier (left), a client in a LARC community home in Thibodaux, plays cards Tuesday with worker Alicia James.
THIBODAUX, La. — As part of the latest round of budget cuts, state health officials will close or privatize 31 community homes for the developmentally disabled by May, including four in Thibodaux and one in Labadieville.
The move could leave 30 residents of Lafourche and Assumption parishes, many both physically and developmentally disabled and all of whom are unable to care for themselves, in limbo. In addition, 64 staff members in Thibodaux and Labadieville could be laid off.
Joy Knight, a Thibodaux resident, received notice on Dec. 31 that her brother, Ray Thomas Hotard, would have to leave the state-operated home he's been living in for a decade by April.
“I was in shock,” she said.
Her 56-year-old brother, diagnosed with Down syndrome, has been cared for in community homes for the last 44 years, she said. She's called homes all over Thibodaux to find somewhere else, but has found no openings.
“There are a lot of things they could cut in the state budget besides homes for people who can't care for themselves or speak up for themselves,” Knight said.
Assistant Secretary for the Office for Citizens with Development Disabilities Kathy Kliebert said the state decided to close the homes because they can be operated at significantly less cost by private businesses.
The Department of Health and Hospitals estimates there will be a $1.88 million in savings within two months of implementing their “privatization plan.” Budget savings are projected to be $11.5 million in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.
The plan to close or privatize the homes follows Gov. Bobby Jindal's December executive order calling on all state agencies to make cuts to deal with a $247.9 million budget shortfall.
On average, Kliebert said, it costs about $208 a day to care for a patient in a privately operated facility versus $366 a day in a state-run home.
Part of the added state cost is caused by requirements that the agency lease the homes they operate at market value, Kliebert said. Private providers are not under that requirement and can negotiate those rates down, she said.
“The standards that the public homes must meet are the same as the private homes,” Kliebert said.
Currently, the Department of Health and Hospitals leases the homes, which are located in residential neighborhoods. The homes to close locally include Thibodaux Community Home, Labadieville Community Home, Beaujolais, Arms and Stairway homes, Kliebert said.
Six developmentally disabled adults live in each home and are cared for by a full-time staff.
Kliebert said the state has begun helping relocate residents to privately run homes where there are vacancies.
The biggest problem in the Thibodaux area is that those vacancies are few and far between. In addition, many of these residents have “significant disabilities and real physical issues” that require medical supervision and specially designed facilities for the physically disabled, said George Stack, executive director of the Lafourche ARC, a nonprofit that provides services for locals with disabilities.
“There aren't many more homes in the area that are equipped to handle these residents,” Stack said. “The ideal would be to keep these people in a home that's already been modified for their use.”
Residents could be moved to homes out of the area, Kliebert said, but most families won't be interested in that option.
If no other acceptable alternatives can be found to relocate residents, Kliebert said Health and Hospitals will look for private businesses willing to take over the houses.
“That's what I think they're really hoping for,” Stack said. “I don't think the state really wants to move someone and break up their routines.”
Stack said that Health and Hospital officials intend to hold a meeting with area providers to discuss possible privatization.
Officials with the Lafourche ARC are in favor of privatizing the state homes as a way to save significant money that could prevent cutbacks from other social programs, Stack said.
“We recommended more than a year ago that the state privatize these homes so they wouldn't have to keep cutting, cutting and cutting services,” Stack said. “But this being done so quickly with no advance notice will put them in a pinch.”
The state wants to privatize the homes by May 1. Stack said he believes there are groups in the area that would be interested in taking over the homes, and Lafourche ARC is one of them.
“I can't think of anyone better than Lafourche ARC to operate many of these facilities,” Stack said.
However, one of the homes in Thibodaux deals with people suffering from both “emotional and developmental” conditions, which Stack said is not its area of expertise.
As a part of the privatization process, 336 state employees would get pink slips, including 64 staff members in Thibodaux and Labadieville. Ideally, Kliebert said, facilities would want to hire back employees who had been working at the home to make the transition as smooth as possible for the residents there. But pay and benefits for the private-sector jobs are much less than what the state pays. Displaced employees will have the opportunity to fill vacancies in other state departments if they choose.
“We've always had a difficult time hiring staff for our homes because they pay staff more than our whole state reimbursement could cover. It would be a big pay cut,” Stack said. “We've had a tough time competing on every front.”
Employees contacted by the Daily Comet did not want to speak about the process and repeatedly referred the newspaper to the Department of Health and Hospitals' Bayou Region office.
There are other money challenges related to privatization that must be faced, Stack said. The state pays more in rent than other private homes in the area, and that rent would have to be negotiated to a lower rate that private organizations like Arc can afford.
Private groups get reimbursed a certain amount of state money for the care they provide in these community homes, Stack said.
For example, Diplomat Way, one of the homes operated by Arc, that caters to the same kind of patients, is reimbursed about $67,025 by the state toward care for each patient per year, whereas the state pays over $100,000 per person for care in its own homes. Private homes are reimbursed by the state at different levels depending on the type of patients they care for.
To get a private facility to pick up the homes as quickly as the Department of Health and Hospitals wants, the state will have to offer the largest reimbursement available for patient care, Stack said.
It will be a difficult process, but the state's goal first and foremost is to “avoid disrupting the lives” of the residents at these state-run homes, Kliebert said.
“But we recognize that may not be possible,” she added.
From The Daily Comet in Louisiana. In the picture, Janet Sonier (left), a client in a LARC community home in Thibodaux, plays cards Tuesday with worker Alicia James.
