State Sen. Doug Berger is in a war with the trade association for home care businesses that this week took to the air.
Berger supports cutting the budget for home health services, saying a lot of people who get the in-home care really don't need it, Lynn Bonner reports.
The Association for Home and Hospice Care of North Carolina has been battling back for weeks. The association started airing a television ad yesterday that says Berger, a Franklin County Democrat, voted for a $25 million fishing pier days after voting to cut home care for Medicaid patients.
Carter Wrenn, a consultant for the home care association, said it is focusing on Berger, one of the budget writers specializing in health and human services, because he is falsely claiming that 45 percent of the people getting in-home services don't need it. Wrenn, a longtime Republican political consultant, said Berger incorrectly interpreted state audits to draw that conclusion. Berger said legislators have to make sure taxpayers' money isn't wasted. "It is a program out of control," Berger said. "We need to rein in this fraud and abuse." Berger said he wasn't worried about being a target. "I have more confidence in the voters that they won't be manipulated by this old-style politcs," he said.
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Re: Air war: Berger v. home care assoc.
Is there fraud and abuse in the home care business?
You bet your sweet .....! Focus on the word "business." A business is in business to make money. If they were in business to give away health care then I doubt they would send out invoices.
Give me a break. Ask anyone familiar with the process. You can make those trite comments about protecting the elderly but it does not discount the fact that there is fraud and abuse across the board. You might throw in a couple of "standing up for the classroom" slogans too.
Let the home care businesses have a free hand and soon I'll be getting home care too. And I am healthy and 29.