A new Ohio program not only supports independent living, but also saves the state money.
By Susan Jaffe | Plain Dealer Reporter | November 7, 2004
Without Ohio’s Access Success Project, Larry Fry might have lived in a nursing home for the rest of his life. The program is unwinding the gove
rnment rules and red tape that trap people in nursing homes who don’t want to be there, don’t need to be there and certainly don’t need to be driving up the state’s enormous nursing home costs (See Graphic, “Paying More for Less,” pg. 19). If it succeeds, the effort targeting 250 nursing home residents could save Ohio millions of dollars a year. Nursing home care costs an average of about $56,000 per resident a year in Ohio. Because Fry needs so little care, living on his own will save Medicaid roughly $50,000 a year. Continued in The Plain Dealer’s Sunday Magazine