Kassy

I 100% agree with these changes. It's nice to see the program stepping up and doing what is right for Oklahomans.

Catherine 

The ADvantage Waiver is an excellent program that enhances the health and safety, and indeed saves the lives, of some of Oklahoma's most vulnerable citizens. These amendments will help reduce the food insecurities of the aging and disabled, fill a troubling gap in services for disabled young people who have aged out of youth services, and help to continue participation of the best service providers available. As a family who relies on ADvantage to help care for a severely disabled adult, we believe these amendments are long overdue and much needed. Please approve them in full.

Pat

I strongly support the increase of home delivered meals to two (2) per day.  From our contacts with our ADvantage Waiver clients through meal delivery, we know that this is needed and will be deeply appreciated. 

I do hope the increase in reimbursement rates will also include an increase for home delivered meals.  We currently are reimbursed $7.08 per meal for congregate meals, and the cost for home delivered meals is no less than that and there is the delivery cost on top of  that.  We deliver hot meals to many ADvantage clients who live within a reasonable distance from the congregate kitchens, and sometimes lose money doing that because it is a 5-day per week delivery cost.  We know that it is our decision to do this, but we feel better about offering this choice as long as we can. But even the cost of frozen and shelf-stable meals has risen so much since the onset of the Pandemic that those meals are becoming unaffordable at a reimbursement rate of $6.44 per meal.

Barbie

This is great.  Will be a true blessing for everyone affected, esp. for families having to wait until their 21st birthday.

Joy McGill (AARP)

On behalf of our members and all older Oklahomans, AARP Oklahoma appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed amendment to 1915(c) HCBS ADvantage Waiver. AARP Oklahoma applauds the state’s efforts to increase ADvantage program recipients’ allowance of home-delivered meals from one meal a day to two meals a day. Access to an adequate and nutritious diet is foundational to maintaining health, quality of life and independence as people age.

More than 153,389 Oklahoma adults aged 50 and older are food insecure (as of 2020), meaning they lack consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle due to inadequate financial resources. Food insecurity has significant negative impacts on older adults, particularly on their health. Compared to food-secure older adults, they are 78 percent more likely to have asthma, 74 percent more likely to be diabetic, 71 percent more likely to have congestive heart failure, 64 percent more likely to have experienced a heart attack and almost three times more likely to experience depression.

Food insecurity among this population also results in significant costs to Oklahoma taxpayers, particularly through increased expenditures on health care. Individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid who had food delivered to their homes had fewer ER visits than those without this benefit according to findings from a Health Affairs Medical Journal study. AARP Oklahoma supports expansion of the ADvantage home-delivery meal program to better meet the health and nutritional needs of the program’s food insecure recipients, in turn, helping curtail the need for additional costly health services incurred by the state.