June 1, 2004

LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced that she has appointed the members of a task force specifically designed to improve Michigan’s long-term care service network.

"The Michigan Medicaid Long Term Care (LTC) task force will set short-terms goals for the next three to five years and develop long-term solutions for the next two decades," Granholm said. "The work of this task force will be vitally important as we seek to improve community-based care for seniors, eliminate unnecessary regulatory barriers, and lessen the enormous pressure on the state’s Medicaid budget."

The 21-member LTC task force, chaired by RoAnne Chaney of East Lansing, will include:

Wardeh (Rose) Alcodray-Khalifa, Oakwood Healthcare, Inc./Amer-Arab Nurse Association

Gerald Betters, Pinecrest Medical Care Facility

Reginald Carter, Health Care Association of Michigan

RoAnne Chaney, Michigan Disability Rights Coalition

State Senator Deborah Cherry (D-Burton)

Mark Cody, Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service

Thomas Czerwinski, Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan

State Representative Matthew Gillard (D-Alpena)

Sharon Gire, Director of the Office of Services to the Aging

State Senator Beverly Hammerstrom (R-Temperance)

Martin Hardy, Greater Grace Temple

Dohn Hoyle, Executive Director, Washtenaw Association of Community Advocacy

Yolanda McKinney, Caring Hearts Home Care

Jennifer Mendez, Professor, Wayne State University

Marsha Moers, Cap Area Center for Independent Living

Janet Olszewski, Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health

State Representative Rick Shaffer (R-Three Rivers)

Susan Steinke, Community Operations for AARP Michigan

Joe Sutton, Sutton Advisors

Marianne Udow, Director of the Family Independence Agency

Tony Wong, Michigan Association for Centers for Independent Living

Granholm has charged the Medicaid LTC task force with:

• reviewing reports and the efficiency and effectiveness of the current mechanisms and funding for the provision of Medicaid long-term care services in Michigan.

• examining and reporting on the current quality of Medicaid long-term care services and making recommendations for improving home-based and community-based long-term care services.

• analyzing and reporting on the relationship between state and federal Medicaid long-term care funding and its sustainability over the long term.

• identifying and recommending benchmarks for measuring successes in the provision of Medicaid long-term care services and for expanding options for home-based and community-based long-term care services.

• making recommendations to effectively reduce barriers to the creation of and access to an efficient and effective system of a continuum of home-based, community-based, and institutional long-term care services.

The LTC task force was created by Executive Order on April 2. The task force is required to issue an interim report on its activities, including preliminary recommendations, by October 1, 2004, and must issue a final report no later than April 1, 2005.

"Our system of long-term care in Michigan is often fragmented and over-reliant on nursing home services," said Janet Olszewski, Director of the Department of Community Health. "Creation of this task force comes at an opportune and unique moment. In the next 20 years, our long-term care system also will be taxed as a result of ‘baby boomer’ retirements."

"It is absolutely imperative that we work – through the recommendations that will be outlined by the task force – to ensure our long-term care system is ready for the increase in the population of retirement-aged citizens," Olszewski said.