Families criticize Medicaid aging waitlist
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman on Tuesday said the state’s Medicaid funding shortfall led to her grandmother being denied coverage at the end of her life.
Josephine Malone died on Oct. 3 at the age of 103.
Her granddaughter, Jo Lynn Garing, said Malone had severe dementia and congestive heart failure and was already in hospice care when she applied for coverage through the Medicaid PathWays for Aging program. Garing said she applied at the end of April, around the same time the Family and Social Services Administration began putting applicants on a waiting list.
Garing said Malone was denied coverage because she was in an assisted-living facility rather than a nursing home. She was put on a waiting list and had still not received coverage when she died.
The waitlist is one of several actions the FSSA took in response to a nearly $1 billion funding shortfall. Officials there said 8,964 people are currently on the waitlist for the PathWays for Aging waiver, which is meant for Medicaid-eligible people aged 60 and older who are in need of assistive care. Another 4,634 are on the waitlist for the related Health and Wellness waiver.