Tenco fears cuts from health care bill

July 07--OTTUMWA -- Josh Pumphrey was born prematurely with a brain bleed. He has the mental capacity of child of 5 or 6 years old and requires 24-hour care to live independently.

Josh has been receiving services from Tenco in Ottumwa since he was in high school.

Now 33, Josh works at Tenco six hours every weekday building mousetraps or filling bolt baggies. Iowa's privatization of Medicaid reduced the number of hours of service that it will pay for, and Tenco's Mendy McAdams is worried that the health care bill currently in Congress will continue the trend.

Josh had been receiving enough funding from Medicaid to pay for services 24 hours a day, said McAdams, Tenco's marketing and development director. In January, that changed, she said. The number hours of care that Medicaid will pay for was decreased by 94 hours a month.

"He is fortunate to have a mother who can privately pay for these lost hours," wrote McAdams in an email, "but most others in this situation are not able to do that."

According to McAdams, Deb Pumphrey can pay for the hours that Medicaid will no longer cover only because her husband's death provided money for Josh's continued care.

The Republican health care bill, which is aimed at dismantling parts of the Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, passed the House and is currently in the Senate where it is undergoing revisions in an attempt to find enough votes to pass.

According to Medicaid.gov, ACA "includes a number of program and funding improvements that help ensure that people can receive long-term care services and supports in their home or in the community."

McAdams says the new bill "looks to make drastic cuts to a program that is already making life-changing reductions.

"In addition to making drastic cuts for services, the new bill looks to shift a large portion of the financial responsibilities to the states," McAdams said. "Iowa already has a $100 million shortfall in the budget.

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