As Family Care enters a new phase, with national insurers administering care for most of the Medicaid long-term care program’s more than 55,000 members, workforce shortages are preventing access for residents across the state. 

“We have an entitlement program for long-term care,” Patti Becker, co-chair of the Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations, said during a Wisconsin Health News virtual panel Wednesday. “(But) there are people who are waiting for care. I do know that there are folks who have slept in their wheelchairs this week.”

She called for an end to a reliance on unpaid family caregivers. 

“They are currently holding up our long-term care system, and if they are not available to do so, you're talking about more expensive congregate settings, longer stays in hospitals and people not being able to return to their own communities,” she said. 

Wisconsin Health Care Association CEO Rick Abrams said policymakers should continue to invest in Family Care to help grow the workforce and retain current workers. They should also ease regulations that make it harder to operate in the program. 

“(That) will have a substantial impact on stabilizing our workforce and hopefully growing it for the future,” he said. 

Boosting the direct care workforce is only part of the solution, said Julie Strenn, long-term care director for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, a recent entrant to the program.

“We need to continue to be innovative and enhance technology,” she said. “We need to think about how … people stay connected to their community, or become connected to their community.”

Community Care President Kenneth Munson called for ensuring that caregivers, whether unpaid or paid, “have access to health insurance, to Medicaid, to the Affordable Care Act” so they can have their “families be stable and enable them to continue to be caregivers.”

He also suggested dusting off a 2020 report from Gov. Tony Evers’ Task Force on Caregiving and reexamining the ideas that haven’t made it across the finish line. 

Kiva Gittings Graves, CEO of iCare, echoed that sentiment. 

“If we could leverage that process again, pull all the people together in a very structured way and really do a deep dive and generate fresh ideas — maybe pull some of those that we didn't implement that are still feasible ideas, and move some of those new ideas forward,” she said. “If it's a coordinated effort with everybody together, I think that's how we're going to get there. That's how we've built this program in Wisconsin, and it's how we're going to continue to make sure that it is the best program in the nation.”