TJ-
I'm impressed with your website and wish you and yours all the best. Given that your objectives are focused on keeping folks at home rather than in an institutional environment, I thought you may be interested in a new product that one of my affiliates is currently bringing to market. I am convinced that this product has the potential of being of great benefit to the elderly and handicapped throughout the nation.
A long-time friend of mine, a builder of modular homes who also happens to be a disabled veteran (Henry Racki, CEO, The Rockfall Company, LLC) has developed a modular home modification called "Practical Assisted Living Structures" (PALS) that promises to give a great number of elderly and handicapped the ability to live at home rather than in an institution. Having been involved with third-party healthcare payment systems for over 30 years, I can certainly appreciate the burden institutional care has on federal and state reimbursement programs. While the home modifications that Rockfall has developed will not be remedies in all situations, they certainly bring to the table a new and significant positive factor in reducing the burdens on federal and state programs that support healthcare delivery.
You may wish to visit the company’s website (www.palsbuilt.com) to get a more complete description of these "PALS" modules. Unlike "Granny Shacks" that have been around for some time or the recently-introduced "MedCottages" in Virginia, these units not "out in the back yard" but are modular home additions designed to quickly and inexpensively modify virtually any home to provide the homeowner with a specially-adapted bathroom, bedroom and living space (including a kitchenette in some models) for use by an elderly or handicapped family member in need of such accommodations. Rockfall recently installed the first of these units, free of charge, in the home of a disabled veteran in West Haven, CT and a second in the home of another disabled vet in Bristol, CT. Both installations are highlighted on the website, and more are in the works, including one being considered by a family living with MS and another with an elderly (94-year old) mother.
Pre-manufactured PALS modules, when coupled with the home-delivered skilled and custodial services provided by homecare agencies and medical equipment suppliers, offer very low-cost alternatives to nursing homes and other institutional providers. Essentially, they can:
1. Save states millions in payments to institutional healthcare providers for Title XIX and other programs (e.g., In Connecticut alone, annual payments to institutions for long-term care exceed $1.5 Billion. Moving only 10% to a PALS unit could save the state in excess of $100 Million);
2. Bring thousands of people home to the safety and care of their loved ones and families;
3. Be funded, in whole or in part, through federal programs such as the DHHS “Money Follows the Person” (MFP) demonstration currently in progress and through other state and federal programs yet to be developed;
4. Create new jobs resulting from an expanded demand for homecare services as well as for services involving building, transporting, installing and maintaining the modules; and
5. Reduce the demand for 24-hour institutional care replacing it with less-expensive intermittent home-delivered healthcare related services.
I am certainly convinced that the cost of these units (amounting to a fraction of the cost of institutional care, even when you include home-delivered caregiver and equipment costs) will make PALS modules a very attractive option for many thousands of users, to scores of third-party healthcare payers and state and federal governmental programs, and to organizations supporting people with disabilities.
Any comments and suggestions that you or your staff may have about the product and the concept would certainly be appreciated.
Thanks
[author's name withheld] |
