Governor Phil Bredesen rolled out a new plan today to create more home-based health care services for people who would otherwise be steered into nursing homes.

Bredesen promised the new look at long-term care in his State of the State message in January.

The proposal calls for “consumer-directed care,” where the recipients decide how to spend funds on non-traditional care providers with the aid of a counselor. Sometimes that paid-provider may even be a relative who would come in to take care of the patient.

State Representative Dennis Ferguson chaired a study committee which worked with the governor’s staff to fine-tune the project.

“There will be some more state funds involved, my understanding, and projection of around twelve million more new dollars that the governor’s going to put in the appropriation.”

In years past, 99-percent of state funds for long-term care have gone to nursing homes.

WEB EXTRA

The governor’s changes will be added to Senate Bill 4181 Kyle and other Democrats /House Bill 4144 Ferguson, Odom and other Democrats. This is a “caption bill,” with a title (“caption”) broad enough to be amended to address a lot of issues. Ignore the original verbiage in the title and note that it addresses three different volumes of state law – Tennessee Code Annotated Titles 63, 68 and 71.

Bredesen’s aides released a 16-page draft of the amendment that will be attached to the handy caption bill. It took a five-page summary to outline the effect of 31 sections in the new plan.

That summary includes “guiding principles” for a “restructured long-term care system,” beginning with these two:

Aging is not a disease, but rather a natural process; support services in the home are needed to allow persons to age in place

A “whole person” approach to care delivery

Bredesen’s administration posted on the governor’s website their own press release explaining the program. See the details.

Republicans recently outlined their own plans to help Tennesseans “age in place.” (See our earlier story). There doesn’t appear to be a difference in the aims of the two parties yet on the subject.

Much of the success of the program will lie with how TennCare is able to adopt new procedures. Health care providers will be watching carefully how reimbursement for services is addressed.