Senior care changes worry local providers

MELROSE — A sudden decision by the state's Aging and Long-Term Services Department affecting the reimbursement of senior care providers drew concern this month from area politicians and local senior center leadership, in spite of assurances there will be no interruption to service.

ALTSD decided last month "to terminate its contract with the Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging (NMAAA) amid serious concerns about fiscal management and accounting for state and federal funds for senior programs across New Mexico," said a Jan. 9 ALTSD press release.

Starting Feb. 1, ALTSD will be "directly handling all reimbursement requests and payments to senior providers" previously handled by NMAAA for most of the state's 33 counties, save for Bernalillo, the release said.

The move is a temporary measure; ALTSD expects in the next six months "to review its processes and structure and gather public feedback," and may decide at the end of that period to de-designate NMAAA as its Area Agency on Aging. Also known as a "triple-A," such agencies are supported by the Older Americans Act and work essentially as a middle-man operator between the state and its local senior providers, which offer services such as adult day care, home-delivered meals and transportation to appointments.

Those are some of the resources available from the Melrose Senior Citizen Center, whose board secretary James Townson expressed concern this week over the impacts of the contract termination.

For Townson, taking NMAAA staff out of the picture for at least half a year will remove talent necessary for the involved monthly bookkeeping and reimbursement operations and replace it with operators that may find themselves overwhelmed.

"I just know that what (NMAAA) do is good and it helps our center," he said Friday. "We're going to lose a lot of important people knowledgeable about how this system works. It's a difficult system."

Townson, who is also a local volunteer representative for NMAAA, said he was doubtful of the timing and circumstances of the contract termination.

"I don't know all the things that the state auditor found in their findings of the audit, but without doing a hearing and letting them know up front and then trying to do this over the Christmas holidays, secretly, I think the state did a shady job over this," he said. "That is not the way they ought to conduct business."

An ALTSD representative detailed some of those audit findings Friday with The News, explaining what happened after an annual fiscal review late last year of NMAAA found financial discrepancies of more than $335,000 in program administration funds and "inflated reimbursement requests in the amount of $113,879," said public information officer Paul Rhien.

"We brought those discrepancies to the (NMAAA)'s attention and they were not forthcoming with the documentation or justification for those funds, which causes us to refer the issue to the state auditor's office," he said. "We've followed all the legal requirements for contract termination. We have not de-designated NMAAA as an Area Agency on Aging; that would be a separate, very public process if we determined that we were going to take that step."

Rhien said ALTSD's staff of 60 full-time operators is adequate for directly managing contracts with local providers in the next half-year. Rather than risking the continuation of services, Rhien characterized the ALTSD move as one to protect them.

"Seniors that have come to trust and rely on these services will not see any reduction. ... This action is really only a change in the way that we're reimbursing community providers." he said. "There are some that will try to politicize this issue, but we are working closely with these providers and our focus is on this vulnerable population and our priority is absolutely in support of our seniors. This action was necessary to insure that we don't jeopardize our federal funding. That would be a disruption."

Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, said Friday he was optimistic about the developments to come in the next six months, uncertain as they may be.

"I'm encouraged that whatever problem is out there, they've discovered and are addressing it. I think that's good when we're talking about the state's dollars put into this," he said. "I think everybody is hoping that the existing (AAA) will retain its status and be able to provide its services."

"My primary concern is that Clovis and surrounding communities will receive the level of service that they were assured," Crowder said. "But clearly this is an intense transition. There's still a lot of unknowns. It's not likely that it will go 100 percent seamlessly. There will be hiccups and there will be bumps."