Anchorage Daily News

The federal government should lift a ban preventing new people from enrolling in Medicaid programs serving disabled and elderly Alaskans, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich urged in a letter this week.

The programs provide help to thousands of Alaskans so they can stay in their homes and not go into a nursing home or other institution. But federal officials have said Alaska's programs are poorly managed and that no new people should be signed up until the state gets things in order.

State officials say as many as 1,000 people may be affected by the moratorium and that they are working hard to resolve the problems. The troubled programs are overseen by the state Division of Senior and Disabilities Services.

The state hopes to resolve within four or five months one critical area: a backlog of 1,800 cases in which people already getting help are waiting for their annual assessment of needs. State officials said they don't know how long the moratorium itself will last but hope not that many months.

The state plan for repairs isn't due until Sept. 1. Fixes must be in place before the federal government will allow new admissions, according to federal officials.

In his letter, Begich urged Gov. Sarah Palin, who is leaving office July 26, to get involved and resolve the crisis quickly. He also wrote to the top federal health official with his concerns about the moratorium.

"It appears there are legitimate questions on both sides -- about the state's administration of the program and what may be an overly forceful reaction by CMS," Begich wrote to Palin. CMS stands for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

He encouraged Palin to offer "the full services of your executive branch" and asked her to pass his letter on to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will be taking over as governor.

In an e-mail sent by her spokeswoman, Palin said her office was "working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services to identify the necessary steps to lift the moratorium."

Palin also said "there needs to be strict oversight of all public monies spent on all government services. Government can play a very appropriate and acceptable role in helping those who can not help themselves."

Begich also wrote to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that the ban is creating problems for people in nursing homes waiting to go home.

"Given these situations will multiply each day the moratorium is in place, I believe some form of corrective compliance would have been a better approach than closing down the entire waiver program," Begich wrote to Sebelius.

Begich's spokeswoman, Julie Hasquet, said he hadn't yet heard back from the federal agency.

Federal officials said the ban was necessary because the state lacked basic measures to assure the health and well-being of vulnerable and disabled people in the program.

Among other problems, the state did not investigate deaths of people in the program, or waiting to get in, and didn't know whether any failure of services may have contributed to the deaths. Because the program serves people who are frail and disabled, some deaths are natural, state officials have said. Still, the state now plans to start doing mortality reviews.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.

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