As the baby boomer generation
continues to age, the need for
assisted living facilities in
Wisconsin will continue to grow,
with one recent estimate saying
we'll need more than 60,000
additional beds over the next 15
years.
More and more, seniors and their
families are using a referral agency
to help them choose a facility.
And a proposed bill at the Capitol
would add some transparency to
explain who's actually paying for
those services.
Joining us now is Mike Pachowski,
CEO of the Wisconsin Assisted Living
Association.
The trade group that represents
those facilities, and thanks for
your time today. Thank you for
having me. So let's start by
explaining what is a referral agency
and how do they interact between
families and the facilities
themselves.
There's essentially two types of
referral agencies. You have the
local ones that are specifically
geared towards Wisconsin, and you
also have the national ones.
And so they really work with the
families to try and find placement
for those individuals, but they
contract with assisted living
facilities specifically, so they
don't give you a full picture of
who you could potentially move into,
because they only give you referrals
for those facilities that they
contract.
So part of this bill
talks about making it obvious who
pays because the referral agencies
claim there was no fee for the
families. They get paid on the back
end, but there's concerns that
those fees are passed along.
Absolutely, so what happens is they
advertise themselves as being this
free service to individuals
and to families. It's not a free
service.
The fees are paid by the facilities
that they contract with.
And so what happened, unfortunately,
is that because those fees are very
high, they get passed down to the
consumer or to the residents that
live in those facilities.
So the incentive for referral
agencies to send clients to more
expensive facilities, at least
that's what the trade groups feel is
happening for some of these
agencies.
Correct, for the most part, these
referral agencies charge anywhere
between 85% to 100%
of the resident's first month rent
and care.
And so what happens is that gives
them the incentive to move
individuals into higher priced
facilities because then they can get
a higher fee with that.
The problem with that too is that
what happens is for these
individuals, they spend down their
assets more quickly, making them
Medicaid eligible faster.
And so we already have a Medicaid
system that's already having lots of
problems. So it just enhances the
problem with our Medicaid program.
So what would this bill do?
What's the number one takeaway that
this would accomplish?
It provides greater consumer
transparency.
It lets everyone know that there's
contracts between the facilities and
the referral agencies, that the
facilities are paying a high fee for
these referrals.
And it just lets the consumer know
that there is also other avenues
they can go to to try and find
placements versus working with just
a referral agency who is only going
to steer you towards a facility that
they contract with.
So referral agencies advertise
their services as almost doing the
homework for the seniors or the
families.
But what kind of homework should a
family do before going through a
referral agency?
Absolutely. They can contact their
local ADRC, which has a
full list of all of the facilities
that are in that geographical area
for that resident or family, or they
can contact the facility directly,
just kind of say, you know, what
services do you provide?
What's what's the environments?
Can I come and tour talk with the
residents talk with a staff just go
that route directly.
You said there were national and
local groups, and often we find
those disparities, locals are more
local, do they do a better job in
your estimation?
In our part, there's probably pros
and cons to both.
I think the nationals, you're right,
is probably more just geared towards
from a national perspective.
They can't focus just on one state.
For the ones that are more
state-based, they probably have more
information and more resources from
a state- based or a local-based
resource.
So the industry overall is facing
a shortage of beds, shortage of
workers, low pay.
What are the steps involved with
handling this new influx of
patients? Because obviously this is
just transparency, if it
passes, it's not fixing any of the
other bigger problems.
You're absolutely correct.
So right now we have a state budget
that's being worked on right now.
We're asking for a continuation
of funds in the family care or the
Medicaid waiver program.
So we need to get more funds into
that program to help pay for
workers, pay for the increasing
cost of goods and services and
everything else that's going on.
So for families that aren't
connected directly in the same state
or the same town as their loved ones
that need this care, what would you
recommend them to do?
You said you can reach out, but
that's time consuming.
That's why these agencies popped up
in the first place.
Absolutely. I would still say, you
know, contact your local ADRC.
They're very helpful. They're a
great resource.
And just look on the Internet, find
facilities that are in the area that
you want to move into and look at
those directly and contact them
directly.
So we have a little less than a
minute left. Obviously there's
national implications for Medicaid
funding. How does that play into
some of these concerns?
We're very concerned if there's
going to be national cuts into the
Medicaid program because that would
trickle down to the states.
We already have a state budget
that's looking to potentially cut
Medicaid funds as well.
So we're definitely doing our best
to kind of push for at least
continuation of funds.
But yeah, we're hearing of cuts all
across the board.
That's significant concerns for the
long-term care industry.
Mike Bohusky, CEO of the Wisconsin
Assisted Living Association.
Thanks for your time. Thank you very
much.
See ya. Go smoke.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
No, I really appreciate you guys
doing this.
No, it's yeah, we we
don't often target individual bills
unless we can kind of broaden it out
But obviously this is this topic is
so yeah, so big
lots of consumer implications and
everything else.
And so there's also been a couple of
other states that kind of did something
similar. So it seems like a national
trend to move this thing going
forward.
Well, if there's one thing that we
know for certain in law is that if
it affects the boomers it will be
addressed.
Exactly, exactly.
We call it the Silver Tsunami.
Yes. Exactly.
No, my dad's in that same
generation, and it's a question
of, OK, what kind of long-term care,
where we put a kind of facility,
if I can stay at home.
Some have the means, and so they
have that ability.
Some don't, and they know this is
their route they're going to end up
in. Exactly.
Absolutely.
All right. Thank you again very
much. Really appreciate it.
I'll take care of it.