Arizona’s Long-Term Care System Faces Scrutiny Amidst Rising Costs
The soaring expense of long-term care is becoming a potential financial disaster for many individuals in Arizona. With the state’s long-term care program, ALTCS, being a popular option, the hurdles to qualify pose significant challenges. Advocates are urging Governor Katie Hobbs to address these pressing issues.
“So what we’re doing is we’re asking the governor to make this a priority, one of her priorities, this year,” stated Tory Roberg, director of government affairs for the Alzheimer’s Association in Phoenix. Roberg highlights that numerous dementia patients who meet ALTCS’s financial criteria are still denied coverage.
Roberg points out potential reasons for these denials: “Maybe because they didn’t answer the phone when the assessor called. Maybe because when the assessor called, they asked the person questions and the person answered the questions in such a way that the assessor said, ‘oh, they don’t need help.’”
The shift to phone assessments during the pandemic has made it challenging to accurately assess cognitive impairment. Roberg advocates for ALTCS to modify their functional eligibility criteria to properly reflect these often invisible symptoms.
“The person may look physically fine, but they are completely unable to take care of themselves and need supervision or prompting or monitoring,” Roberg noted. She emphasizes the need for a return to in-person assessments and an increase in state funding for additional ALTCS staff.
Further details on this issue can be found in the following reports: The cost of long-term care can bankrupt a person and But qualifying is tough. Now some advocates are calling on Gov. Katie Hobbs to address this issue..
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