NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & SportsState Considers Cutting Back On In-Home Nurse Care

State Considers Cutting Back On In-Home Nurse Care

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Tennessee's health care system, TennCare pays for nearly 1,000 people to have a nurse at their homes around the clock.

But the program needs to make budget cuts and restructuring this service is among the considerations. TennCare is the state's Medicaid-managed care program.

It can cost more than $300,000 a year for in-home nurses. 

It is a service that is priceless to individuals such as LaMonica Barnett.

Four years ago, her brother, Carl had a stroke.

"His very existence depends on having someone available 24 hours a day," she said.

The 54-year-old man spent two years in a nursing home, but his family said he receive didn't receive the care he needed.

"He stayed in the same room in the nursing home for a year.  They never took him out of the room," Barnett said.

That's when she decided to move her brother into her home with the help of a nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. TennCare paid for it.

"He'd honestly be dead by now if he's stayed in a nursing home," she said.

But, TennCare wants to cut his nurses from 168 hours a week to 25.

A TennCare spokeswoman said the agency has to make changes or it will eventually drain the budget.

"We want to provide those medical services at home. We're looking to family members and other caregivers to deliver those non-medical services," said Marilyn Wilson, TennCare spokeswoman.

Wilson said TennCare's goal is to provide more people with home care coverage by doing it more efficiently. 

But health care advocate Tony Garr said the changes put too much of a burden on caregivers.

"That doesn't enable the family member to work, have other things, be productive in other ways," said Garr, executive director of Tennessee Health Care Campaign, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable, accessible and quality health care for Tennesseans.

Barnett agrees TennCare may need to make changes, but she feels they should do it differently.

"Find out what that client needs and then determine the services they get," Barnett said.

And not make across the board cuts to her brother's care.

Right now, if a home-care patient can't live with 25 nursing hours a week their other option would be a nursing home.

Advocates said that isn't a good option.

But Wilson said of the 300 home-care patients assessed so far, not one of them has yet to go into a nursing home. As far as the state budget, home health care could eventually cost Tennessee as much as prescription drug coverage.