MINUTES
SENATE INTERIM COMMITTEE ON HOME HEALTH
AND ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES
Wednesday, February 18, 1998
9:30 am
University of Texas-M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Hickey Auditorium
1515 Holcombe Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77030
*****
Pursuant to a notice posted in accordance with Senate Rule
11.11, a public hearing of the Senate Interim Committee on
Home Health and Assisted Living Facilities was held on
Wednesday, February 18, 1998 in Houston, Texas.
*****
MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT:
Senator Mike Moncrief Senator Mario
Gallegos, Jr.
Senator Gonzalo Barrientos Senator Jane Nelson
Senator Drew Nixon
*****
After standing in recess on February 17, 1998 the Committee
reconvened at 9:30 a.m. to transact the following business:
The following members arrived after the hearing had
reconvened:
Senator Gonzalo Barrientos
Senator Drew Nixon
Chairman Moncrief introduced and welcomed Representative Scott
Hochberg, District 132,
Houston, Texas.
The Chair welcomed invited speakers, guests and the public.
The Chair announced that the purpose of the hearing was to
focus on local perspectives regarding personal care facilities
and to hear public testimony.
The Chair then called a panel to testify about local
governments and personal care facilities. The panel members
were:
Tim Austin, City of Houston, Senior Assistant City
Attorney; Division Chief of
Neighborhood Protection Division
Ellen MacDonald, R.N.C., M.N., L.N.F.A., Program
Director, Long Term Care Ombudsman
Program, Harris County; Associate Director of
Community Affairs, the U. T.
Houston Center on Aging
Emma J. Smith, President-Elect, Houston Association of
Residential Care Homes
Sid Holliday, Provider, Galveston
The panel testified and responded to questions from Members of
the Committee. The Chair thanked and dismissed the panel.
The Chair then called for public testimony. The following
persons provided oral testimony:
Mark E. Price, Attorney, Houston, Texas
D'Juana Tomlin, Home Health Care/Elderly Advocate,
Trinity Homecare, Channelview, Texas
Marie Therese McBride, Self, Houston, Texas
Jan Duck, Texas Occupational Therapy Association,
Houston, Texas
Cathy Pham, Vuong Nham and Vu Thuc, Houston, Texas
Alice Y. Huynh, Dau Ngoc Nguyen, Houston, Texas
Steven Winnett, National Intervention, Inc., Pasadena,
Texas
B. Carol Henderson, G. C. Allied Home Health, Missouri
City, Texas
Roberta Reitz, Self, Houston, Texas
Vicki Smith, Home Health Care, Buna, Texas
Lucena M. DeVilla, Medical Insights, Inc., Houston, Texas
Laurence LeMon, Jr., Medical Insights, Inc., Houston,
Texas
C. W. "Mat" Mathews, Texas Organization of Residential
Care Homes, Del Valle, Texas
Diana Deaton, Texas Assisted Living Association, Austin,
Texas
Jo Nell Werlinger, Valued Care Home Health Service,
Houston, Texas
Carol A. Anderson Bell, Self, Arlington, Texas
Kathy Maxey, Texas Association for Home Care/Girling
Health Care, Temple, Texas
Lovelyn Yemi-Ese, Home Health Agency, Houston, Texas
The Chair called George D. Cato, Texas Department of Health,
Office of General Counsel,
to respond to questions from Committee Members regarding a
Texas Department of Health form requesting criminal history
checks. The Chair thanked and dismissed the witness.
On motion of Chairman Moncrief and by unanimous consent, a
letter from Richard R. Scott, Sr.
was ordered to be entered into the Committee minutes as
follows:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a 63 year old C-7 quadriplegic unable to turn or
change position without help which
causes me to have many skin problems. I live at home
because there is no other way. Nursing homes, assisted
living centers, and any other method of living I have checked
into
are priced beyond reach for me. Several years ago
Medicare told me that I had no need for a wheel chair or
bathroom equipment. Up until this time I had been totally
independent, but without the proper equipment I had to turn
to Home Health Care. I can no longer get in and out of bed
by myself, get dressed or take care of my bowel program. I
have limited use of my right hand and arm. My left hand
and arm has a full range of motion but it is weak. I have a
phone and computer that I use to communicate with others and
can call for help if necessary. I am paralyzed from mid
chest down. I am just a little richer than dirt, so I am not
eligible for a provider. I have tried to hire someone to come
in to help me but there is no way that I could afford this.
If I don't have help from Home Health, I will either have to
stay up twenty four hours a day, or stay in bed twenty four
hours a day. Blood draws and other sampling is a must for
people like me. I am Home Bound in every sense of the word.
I am sure that Medicare wouldn't want to pay an expensive
two way ambulance trip just for me to go and get a blood
sample drawn or have my catheter changed. I need nurses to
maintain my catheter which often leaks and occasionally get
stopped up and causes my blood pressure
to go up dangerously high. Without Home Health I would
be going to the hospital
emergency room several times a week. My only way of
transportation is an ambulance
which will cost Medicare more money to take care of. As
I stated before I live alone,
without Home Health I will just be here unable to get up
to get food, or drink, unable to use
the bathroom, or get a bath and maintain the quality of
life that I have at this time. Please
give me some suggestions as to how to survive this
situation...Don't shut the system down,
clean it up, cut out the fraud.
Thanks,
Richard R. Scott, Sr.
4218 Roving Meadows
Crosby, Texas 77532
The following persons registered, but did not testify:
Diane C. Davis, Texas Health and Human Services
Commission, Austin, Texas
Charlotte Dokes, Texas Health and Human Services
Commission, Austin, Texas
Thuy Morton, Hoang Tri, Houston, Texas
Barbara Smith, Texas Department of Protective and
Regulatory Services, Adult
Protective Services, Houston, Texas
Jan McLaughlin, Texas Department of Protective and
Regulatory Services, Houston, Texas
Sam G. Wynn, Jr., U. S. Department of Health Care
Financing Administration, Dallas,
Texas
Charles R. Springer, Regional Home Care &
Spring/Woodlands, Spring, Texas
The following persons submitted written testimony:
Kathleen DeSilva, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities
Personal Assistance Services,
Houston, Texas
Julia Finch, Self, Pasadena, Texas
Charla Kulcak, Home Health Advantage of Texas, Inc.,
Richmond
Steve Roberts, First Trinity Home Health Care, Houston,
Texas
Nancy L. Stone, Visiting Nurse Association of Houston,
Inc., Houston, Texas
The Chair recalled George D. Cato, Texas Department of Health,
Office of General Counsel, to brief the Committee on the
criminal history check form and to respond to questions from
Committee Members. The Chair thanked and dismissed the
witness.
There being no further business, at 3:05 p.m. Senator Moncrief
announced that the Committee would stand recessed subject to
the call of the Chair. Without objection, it was so ordered.
_____________________
Senator Mike Moncrief, Chair
_____________________
Judy Daugherty, Clerk