State’s assessment fails those it should assist

Arkansas’ disadvantaged, disabled people, such as I, have been unjustly stripped of caregiver rights and independence by being denied assistance funding. I tell my story in quest for the justice and freedom America so proudly boasts.

Thousands of disabled individuals were traumatized when Arkansas combined an existing program to assist the disabled with that of seniors. This new computerized assessment program has disrupted lives by forcing many disabled into nursing facilities, “warehousing” them against their will. For what gain, as state costs are more than with in-home caregivers.

The Department of Human Services created a 2017 computer program (RUG Score System) to assess the disabled, seniors, their health and caregiver needs. RUG consists of 200 questions, assigning recipients into categories, designating allotted caregiver hours. This program is pre-set regardless of how questions are answered. Supposedly, 2018’s Reassessment Evaluation consists of three tiers, forcing those in my condition into nursing homes. A computer program cannot accurately analyze nor physically inspect specific individual circumstances. Even symptoms of those with known diagnosis will differ.

My “case unknown” diagnosis has no category. I’m the only known person with my totally disabling “condition,” including central nervous system deterioration. My life expectancy was age 13. Against all odds, I’m 50. But, my body has weakened and deteriorated, developing diagnosable issues adding to my disability.

My parents provide my 24/7 care. Medicaid waiver programs and Social Security have provided funding for survival up until now. Constant need for lift assistance forced my dad to quit work to do so as my condition is so delicate. I cannot use Hoyer/Sling lifts, but require specialized infant hand-cradling to prevent my bones from falling apart due to lack of muscles holding my core structure together.

The DHS 2017 assessment has cut funding for my caregiver hours in half, and only then allow for months with four weeks! Hours will not be provided for the fifth week of any month. Funding cuts to my caregiver hours mean: I’m allowed help from bed, to the bathroom, and to eat every other day, except during a 5-week month. That fifth week I must stay in bed without help, left lying to starve, creating pressure sores, kidney infections, etc., to force me into an unwanted and unnecessary nursing home.

I appealed DHS’s assessment decision. But, when the state pays a state lawyer to fight the state, with a state-paid judge, you know what to expect. Desperately, I followed protocol and appealed. The hearing officer ruled for RUG against my health care needs as it has countless others. I lost but am currently appealing, again writing Health and Human Services, the president, governor, attorney general and the media, helplessly wishing my reliance on the government for survival wasn’t required, but is, as is others’.

For years my taxpaying parents have contributed to this system, which now has been denied me as a U.S. citizen in desperate need of funding assistance. No one, including the governor or attorney general, will respond to my plea. This is not our “America, the land of liberty and justice for all.”

To whom do we turn?

TONYA CARPENTER

Rogers